Refiguring The Father
Refiguring The Father
Refiguring The Father
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597
the sexes, as Freud would have it, but on the basis of cross-cultural
data that women everywhere are the primary caretakers of children
of both sexes.
I remember vividly my own introduction to Chodorow in 1973,
when someone in my Cambridge women's group brought to our
attention "Family Structure and Feminine Personality," one of
Chodorow's graduate student papers written the year before at
Brandeis. I read it with growing excitement: here, at last, was a
rewriting of Freud's script for women's psychosexual development.
No longer did one have to struggle skeptically with the tortured
theory of the female Oedipus, whether "penis envy" or the difficult
and crippling transition from the clitoral to vaginal genital orienta-
tion. Chodorow, a year or two younger than we were, had explained
how women's universal role as the caretaker of children set in train
a process by which those children grew into their gendered
identities as boys and girls, men and women. Her theory located
difference in social process, not biology. Starting with women's
universal social role as mothers, Chodorow derived an explanation
for the "reproduction of mothering"-that is, how girl children are
conditioned to take responsibility for child rearing and other forms
of human intimacy and to define themselves as "relational" beings.
She suggested that the universal female backdrop to childhood
development had different consequences for girls than it did for
boys.
This early paper is reprinted in Feminism and Psychoanalytic
Theory, along with other Chodorow essays published between
1972 and 1990 on subjects such as personality formation, psycho-
analytic theories of difference, and psychoanalytic practice. The
collection documents Chodorow's twenty-year dialogue with psy-
choanalysis. For her, psychoanalysis is first and foremost a theory of
the construction of heterosexuality-of femininity and masculinity
as they are conventionally understood. For others, psychoanalysis
has been a theory of childhood sexuality, or a theory about the
operations of the unconscious, or a theory about psychic structure-
the economy of id, ego, and superego. But what Chodorow credits
to Freud is providing "an account of the genesis of psychological
aspects of gender and sexuality in their social context" (170). Her
readings of Freud redirect attention from the body-its anatomy
and drives-to perceptions about the self in relation to other selves.
The chapters take up various aspects of the difference gender
makes in psychoanalytic theory and practice: the professional
debate, for example, about boys' and girls' perceptions of their
genitals; the problem of asymmetrical cross-gender countertrans-
ference (the way male analysts may be "less likely to recognize
598
599
600
601
1 Daughters and Fathers, ed. Lynda E. Boose and Betty S. Flowers (Baltimore:
Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989).
602
If
If Nancy
NancyChodorow
Chodorowdemonstrated
demonstrated thethe
centrality
centrality
of mothers
of mothers
in in
women's
women'srepresentation
representation ofof
themselves,
themselves,
directing
directing
us tousexamine
to examine
these
these relationships
relationshipsasas
well
well
as as
thethe
nature
nature
of women's
of women's
relationships
relationships
with
with other
otherwomen,
women,this this
newnew
work
workbidsbids
us pay
us pay
attention
attention
to fathers.
to fathers.
Completing
Completingananessentially
essentiallyFreudian
Freudianresearch
research
program,
program,
feminists
feminists
are are
investigating
investigatingallallthe
therelations
relations
of of
thethe
family:
family:
the the
father
father
as well
as as
well
theas the
mother,
mother,and andintra-generational
intra-generational as well
as wellas cross-generational
as cross-generationalrela- rela-
tionships.
tionships.Despite
Despitepostmodernist
postmodernist disclaimers
disclaimers aboutabout
the instability
the instability
and
and unknowability
unknowabilityofof the
theself,
self,
we we
stillstill
cannot
cannot
afford
afford
to explode
to explode
gender
gender asasaacategory
categoryofof analysis-not
analysis-notuntil until
it noitlonger
no longer
existsexists
as a as a
category
categoryof ofpolitical
politicaland
andeconomic
economicdiscrimination.
discrimination. And And
the family
the family
remains
remainsourourbest
bestguess
guessas as
to to
howhow thethe
culture
culture
constructs
constructs
and repro-
and repro-
duces
duces existing
existingforms
formsofof masculinity
masculinity andand
feminity,
feminity,
how how
it manages
it manages
sexual
sexual relations
relationswithin
within this
this
political
political
andand
economic
economicsystem.
system.
As family
As family
forms
forms change
changeandandour
ourculture
culture experiences
experiencesa wider
a wider
variety
variety
of child-
of child-
rearing
rearing practices,
practices,perhaps
perhaps wewewillwill
refine
refine
our our
understanding
understanding
of theof the
relationship
relationshipbetween
betweenfamily
family structure
structureandand
the the
particular
particular
formsforms
of of
gender
gender with
withwhich
whichwewe arearefamiliar
familiarin the
in the
late late
twentieth
twentieth
century.
century.
Toward
Toward aaFeminist
FeministTheory
Theoryof of
thethe
State.
State.
By CATHARINE
By CATHARINE
A. MACKINNON.
A. MACKINNON.
Cambridge,
Cambridge,
Mass.:
Mass.: Harvard
HarvardUniversity
UniversityPress,
Press,
1989.
1989.
Justice
Justice and
andGender.
Gender.ByBy
DEBORAH
DEBORAH
L. RHODE.
L. RHODE.
Cambridge,
Cambridge,
Mass.:Mass.:
Harvard
Harvard
University
University
Press, Press,
1989.
603