On Women: A Reader

by Sigmund Freud

This collection contains Freud's most significant statements on women, taken form letters as well as published work, presenting a clear, accessible view of the progress of his though and his own struggle for understanding and coherence. Elisabeth Young-Bruehl untangles the arguments, relating Freud's ideas on women, and on bi-sexuality to his clinical practice and broader theory, while the annotated bibliography traces the later disputes. FREUD ON 'They go through an early age in which they envy their brothers their signs of masculinity and feel at a disadvantage and humiliated because of the lack of it...' FREUD ON 'At one time (in a matriarchal society) the woman may have bee the dominant partner. In this way, like the defeated deities, she acquires demonic properties...' AND ON 'My mother was nowhere to be found' I was crying in despair. My brother Philip...unlocked a wardrobe for me, and when I did not find my mother within it either, I cried even more until, slender and beautiful, she came through the door. What can this mean?'

Genres: Psychology, Feminism

399 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Dr. Sigismund Freud, M.D. (University of Vienna)—later changed to Sigmund—was a neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, who created an entirely new approach to the understanding of the human personality. He is regarded as one of the most influential—and controversial—minds of the 20th century.

In 1873, Freud began to study medicine at the University of Vienna. After graduating, he worked at the Vienna General Hospital. He collaborated with Josef Breuer in treating hysteria by the recall of painful experiences under hypnosis. In 1885, Freud went to Paris as a student of the neurologist Jean Charcot. On his return to Vienna the following year, Freud set up in private practice, specialising in nervous and brain disorders. The same year he married Martha Bernays, with whom he had six children.

Freud developed the theory that humans have an unconscious in which sexual and aggressive impulses are in perpetual conflict for supremacy with the defences against them. In 1897, he began an intensive analysis of himself. In 1900, his major work The Interpretation of Dreams was published in which Freud analysed dreams in terms of unconscious desires and experiences.

In 1902, Freud was appointed Professor of Neuropathology at the University of Vienna, a post he held until 1938. Although the medical establishment disagreed with many of his theories, a group of pupils and followers began to gather around Freud. In 1910, the International Psychoanalytic Association was founded with Carl Jung, a close associate of Freud's, as the president. Jung later broke with Freud and developed his own theories.

After World War One, Freud spent less time in clinical observation and concentrated on the application of his theories to history, art, literature and anthropology. In 1923, he published The Ego and the Id, which suggested a new structural model of the mind, divided into the 'id, the 'ego' and the 'superego'.

In 1933, the Nazis publicly burnt a number of Freud's books. In 1938, shortly after the Nazis annexed Austria, Freud left Vienna for London with his wife and daughter Anna.

Freud had been diagnosed with cancer of the jaw in 1923, and underwent more than 30 operations. He died of cancer on 23 September 1939.

Reviews

[Emma]

Very interesting. Offers a lot of information to the reader but lets the reader come to their own conclusions. It’s very interesting to see Freuds progression in thought

[Nicholas Crawford]

An excellent Reader. I originally started it to get the "A Child is Being Beaten" essay, but found the rest of the collection much more useful. The collection is a great parsing of Freud's thought and its development. Many of the smaller, later essays are quite useful, though I'd say a good third of what's here isn't that memorable, at least to me. I definitely recommend a chronological reading for any not already familiar with these works.

As for the popular stigma of Freud and women, this reader presents a great unbiased and sympathetic reading. The book's introductions point out where conflicts or changes in Freud's thought lie, as well as highlight Freud's own (frequent) admittance of his own limits and uncertainties.

All in all, this book is great as a general introduction AND as a filler of essential essays for a more complete psychoanalytic library.

[Marybeth]

I think you could combine this book with Woodhouse's No Bad Dogs & make up a drinking game...