Table Of ContentPsychoanalytic Reflections on a
Gender-free Case
The past two decades of psychoanalytic discourse have witnessed a marked transformation
in the way we think about women and gender. The assignment of gender carries with it a
host of assumptions, yet without it we can feel lost in a void, unmoored from the world of
rationality, stability and meaning. The feminist analytic thinkers whose work is collected
here confront the meaning established by the assignment of gender and the uncertainty
created by its absence.
The contributions brought together in Psychoanalytic Reflections on a Gender-free Case:
Into the Void address a cross-section of significant issues that have both chronicled and
facilitated the changes of feminist psychoanalysis since the mid-1980s. Difficult issues which
have previously been ignored (such as the pregnancy of the therapist or sexual abuse
regarded as more than a fantasy) are considered first. The book goes on to address family
perspectives as they interact and shape the child's experience of growing up male or female.
Other topics covered are the authority of personal agency as influenced by the language and
theory of patriarchy, male-centred concepts that consistently define women as inferior, and
the concept of gender as being co-constructed within a relationship. Thus the authors
explore the notion of gender identity as an ongoing negotiation among multiple gendered
selves.
The gender-free case presented here will fascinate all psychoanalysts interested in
exploring ways of grappling with the elusive nature of gender, as well as those engaged in
gender studies.
Ellen L. K. Toronto is a founding member and past president of the Michigan Psycho
analytic Council, and is in private practice in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Gemma Ainslie practices psychoanalysis and psychotherapy in Austin, Texas, and is Vice-
President of the Austin-San Antonio Psychoanalytic Society.
Molly Donovan is a psychologist in private practice in Washington, DC, and is on the
faculty at both the Georgetown University Medical School and the George Washington
University.
Maurine Kelly practices psychoanalysis and psychotherapy in Bethesda and Silver Spring,
Maryland, and is on the faculties of the Washington School of Psychiatry and the George
Washington University.
Christine C. Kieffer is a Child/Adolescent and Adult psychoanalyst on the faculty of the
Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis.
Nancy McWilliams teaches for the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psy
chology at Rutgers University and for several psychoanalytic institutes.
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"Psychoanalytic Reflections on a Gender-free Case: Into the Void is a most
unique book. The reader is provided an experience – reading a case in
which the gender of the patient is left out – that forces one to contemplate
the constructed nature of gender. The experience of the case then serves as a
touchstone in a wide-ranging series of papers that show the state of the
art in gender theory from a relational psychoanalytic and postmodern
perspective. The book covers the topic in depth and comprehensively – an
invaluable combination for the reader."
Neil Altman, Associate Clinical Professor, New York University
Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy & Psychoanalysis
"No social movement or cultural phenomena has had as transformative an
impact on psychoanalysis as has feminism and the women's movement. By
following a gender-free case through the lens of modernist and postmodern
theories, Psychoanalytic Reflections on a Gender-free Case: Into the Void
illuminates gender space for practicing clinicians, psychotherapists, students
and anyone fascinated by questions of gender, sexuality and personhood."
Lewis Aron, Director, New York University Postdoctoral Program in
Psychotherapy & Psychoanalysis
"This book brings together a dazzling array of psychoanalytic writing on
the matter of gender and the linking of gender to sex, race, body states,
history, biology, social construction and politics. The book's integrative
expansiveness and its attunement to theoretical and stylistic variations in
our field live as testimony to the political and professional and personal
ferments of the past three decades. This collection of papers goes so far
beyond the usual edited collections, showing how subtle, complex and full
of surprises the psychoanalytic study of gender has become."
Adrienne Harris, Clinical Adjunct Associate Professor, New York
University
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Psychoanalytic Reflections on a
Gender-free Case
Into the void
Edited by Ellen L. K. Toronto,
Gemma Ainslie, Molly Donovan,
Maurine Kelly, Christine C. Kieffer
and Nancy McWilliams
ROUTLEDG RTayoloru &t Flerandcisg Gero up
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LONDON AND NEW YORK
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First published 2005
by Routledge
27 Church Road, Hove, East Sussex BN3 2FA
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Avenue, New York NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Croup
Copyright © 2005 selection and editorial material, Ellen L K. Toronto,
Gemma Ainslie, Molly Donovan, Maurine Kelly, Christine C. Kieffer and
Nancy McWilliams; individual chapters, the contributors.
Typeset in Times by Garfield Morgan, Rhayader, Powys, UK
Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books, Bodmin, Cornwall
Cover design by Sandra Heath
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
This publication has been produced with paper manufactured to strict
environmental standards and with pulp derived from sustainable forests.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Psychoanalytic reflections on a gender-free case : into the void / Ellen
Toronto . . . [et al.].
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-58391-789-6
1. Psychoanalysis. 2. Women psychoanalysts. 3. Women and
psychoanalysis. 4. Psychotherapist and patient. 5. Feminist therapy. 6.
Gender identity—Psychological aspects. I. Toronto, Ellen.
RC501.P794 2005
616.89'17'0082–dc22
2005006411
ISBN 1-58391-789-6
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The publication of this volume celebrates the twentieth
anniversary of the founding of Section III, Women, Gender and
Psychoanalysis, of the Division of Psychoanalysis (39) of the
American Psychological Association.
It is dedicated to the founding members including:
Bernice Barber
Toni M. Bernay
Carol A. Butler
Judith Butt
Aphrodite Clamar
Barbara L. Claster
Carole Dilling
Ruth Formanek
Susannah Gourevitch
Helena W. Harris
Rochelle G. K. Kainer
Sheila J. Kaplan
Cheryl L. Kurash
Dale M. Mendell
Carole W. Morgan
Gerrie Nussdorf
Suzanne B. Phillips
Conalee Levine Shneidman
Harriet Kimble Wrye
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Contents
Notes on contributors xi
Introduction 1
ELLEN L. K. TORONTO
PART 1
Gender unbound 9
1 Case presentation 11
ELLEN L. K. TORONTO
2 The feminine unconscious in psychoanalytic theory 22
ELLEN L. K. TORONTO
PART II
Suspending certainty in the consulting room 47
3 Commentary on Part II 49
MOLLY DONOVAN
4 Childhoods driven wrong 54
JUDITH L. ALPERT
5 An analyst's pregnancy loss and its effects on treatment
disruption and growth 75
BARBARA GERSON
6 Working in the space between psychoanalytic and
trauma-oriented approaches to stories of abuse 90
JOAN SARNAT
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viii Contents
PART III
Family relationships: shifting perspectives 111
7 Commentary on Part III 113
NANCY MCWILLIAMS
8 Selfobjects, Oedipal objects and mutual recognition: a
self-psychological reappraisal of the female "Oedipal victor" 119
CHRISTINE C. KIEFFER
9 Demeter and Persephone revisited: ambivalence and
separation in the mother–daughter relationship 132
MOLLY DONOVAN
10 Boys' envy of mother and the consequences of this
narcissistic mortification 143
RUTH F. LAX
11 Mothering and fathering processes in the psychoanalytic art 154
NANCY MCWILLIAMS
PART IV
Beneath the bedrock: the gender of desire 171
12 Commentary on Part IV 173
GEMMA AINSLIE
13 The female person and how we talk about her 177
POLLY YOUNG-EISENDRATH
14 Woman and desire: why women may not want to want 194
DIANNE ELISE
PART V
Multiplicity: postmodern revisions of gender 215
15 Commentary on Part V 217
CHRISTINE C. KIEFFER
16 Beyond narcissism: toward a negotiation model of gender
identity 227
LYNNE LAYTON
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Contents ix
17 Ironic gender, authentic sex 243
VIRGINIA GOLDNER
18 Gender stereotypes and the change towards greater personal
maturity in psychotherapy 256
GWENDOLYN L. GERBER
19 The music of "masculinity": clinical attention to tone and
rhythm in gender construction 268
STEVEN H. KNOBLAUCH
20 Race in psychoanalytic space 285
KIMBERLYN LEARY
Afterword 298
MURIEL DIMEN
Index 307
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