The Contradiction between the American Women’s Movement and Psychoanalysis
Abstract
The article examines the theoretical premises that shaped the history of tensions between psychoanalytic theory and the women’s rights movement. It argues that the roots of this conflict lie in a distinctly American way of conceptualizing sexual difference as consisting of two relatively independent layers: biological and social. The article traces the genealogy of this conceptualization of sexual difference, from sexology and sociology up to contemporary new materialism. The abstraction of sex and gender as separate entities, while sensible at certain points, creates—as the article demonstrates—conceptual difficulties that Judith Butler and their followers within the materialist turn have attempted to resolve. The article presents arguments from opponents of this conceptual distinction, drawing on phenomenology (e.g., Moira Gatens reading Maurice Merleau-Ponty) and existentialism (e.g., Toril Moi reading Simone de Beauvoir). It further contends that psychoanalysis offers an alternative way of thinking about sexual difference in its lived concreteness. However, the mismatch in foundational assumptions have prevented the American feminist movement from recognizing this aspect of psychoanalysis, leading to vehement critiques that—as the article shows—often miss their mark.
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