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Sigmund Freud's Beliefs To Describe The Development Of Women

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Freudian Femininity Freud describes femininity as a riddle, and explains that this riddle in unsolvable by either psychology or biology. He instead chooses to describe the development of girls into women, first detailing observations then offering psychoanalytical theories to explain what he sees. Freud views a woman as “Not Man,” more than as “A Woman.” As a result, his core beliefs surrounding childhood development are highly phallocentric. The vast majority of his beliefs about the development of women are based upon his theory of penis envy. Freud believes that femininity is characterized essentially by a “preference to achieve passive aims,” (115) and an internalized desire to have a penis, otherwise known as Penis Envy. When we discuss …show more content…

The oedipus complex as freud describes it is a child’s desire to have a sexual relationship with the parent of the opposite gender. It occurs in the phallic developmental stage (the third stage of five). In 1913, the female version of the Oedipus complex was renamed to the Electra complex. For little boys, the Oedipus complex places them in competition with their father and in love with the mother. For little girls, it pushes them away from the mother and towards the father. According to Freud, “The castration complex prepares for the Oedipus complex instead of destroying it; the girl is driven out of her attachment to her mother through the influence of her envy for the penis and she enters the Oedipus situation as though into a haven of refuge.” (129)
Once the little girl realizes that both she and her mother are castrated, she resents it and blames her castrated mother, then turns to the father for affection, fulfillment, and …show more content…

Whether he discusses envy of it, obsession with it, activity, passivity, sex, object-cathexes, or the Oedipus complex, Freud holds the phallocentric view that the penis is Most Desirable. He refers to the penis as “superior equipment,” (126) and thereby implies a superiority of phallus to vagina and clitoris. It is unfathomable to him that a girl could be without penis envy, not want a baby, or have a noncompetitive relationship with her mother. Though femininity is never explicitly defined by Freud, women are. He pointedly states that “In these circumstances [of feminine Oedipus complexes] the formation of the super-ego must suffer; it cannot attain the strength and independence which give it its cultural significance, and feminists are not pleased when we point out to them the effects of this factor upon the average feminine character.” Freud never expressed his view on the definition of femininity, but did express his distain for women and phallocentric beliefs which culminate in sexist generalizations about women, but without ever including

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