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Pyschoanalysis took shape as a clinical or therapeutic method, feminism as a political strategy. (Buhle, 1998). Many women did not fight against oppression because they did not realize they were oppressed in the first place. (Ruck, 2015)

The Anti-Feminism After WWII

In 1942 Edward Strecker made “momism” an official pathological syndrome under the APA. He believed that the country was under threat because mothers weren’t emotionally disconnecting from their children at a young enough age, the matriarchy was making young men weak and losing their “man power”. This fueled that antifeminist movement, women were in need of psychotherapy to aid their mental illness and further prevent the spread of maternalism. The psychological damage on the family would be severe if a woman chose a career to satisfy her needs as opposed to her feminine domestic role assigned by society- a woman’s happiness was not important, she must follow her role. The effect of women having independent thoughts and a thirst for exploring her options was a huge threat to gender, it resulted in masculinized women and feminized men, apparently confounding the nation’s youth and dooming their future. Constantinople and Bem both agreed that men and women possess masculinity and femininity, and that having both is being psychologically androgynous and a cause to be psychologically fixed or evaluated.

Gender Research in the 1960’s and 1970’s

 Edith Greenglass states that in 1972, the field of psychology was still male dominated, women were totally excluded. The use of the word women in conjunction with psychology was forbidden, men refused to be excluded from the narrative.  In her experience of teaching class, or being assistant professors, they had to phrase it in the interest of human beings or gender. Unger’s paper Toward a Redefinition of Sex and Gender, said that the use of gender showed the separation of biological and psychological sex. Instead it was psychology of human beings. Psychology of women is feminist because it’s saying women are different from men, you cannot understand women’s behavior outside of context. But feminists in turn compelled psychoanalysts to consider the implications of one of Freud’s own, most uncompromising propositions: “that human beings consist of men and women and that this distinction is the most significant one that exists.” (Buhl, 1998).

In Liberating Minds: Consciousness-Raising as a Bridge Between Feminism and Psychology in 1970s Canda, Nora Ruck leads with, “U.S. radical feminist Irene Peslikis warned that equating women’s liberating with individual therapy prevented women from truly understanding and fighting the roots of their oppression.” Canada was one of the few countries with an academic category within psychology for feminism. They relied on CR (consciousness raising) groups to build their movement. Ruck describes the process of these CR groups by “bridging the tensions” between the personal and political. The development of CR as a political method in its own right is widely attributed to the New York-based radical feminist collective “Redstockings” (Echols, 1989). CR is also closely tied with radical feminism, which aims to weed out discrimination and segregation based on sex, and through a grassroots movement like socialist feminism, maintains that women’s oppression is not a by-product of capitalist oppression but a “primary cause” (Koedt, 1968).

Joining the Work Force

Women were excluded from Freud’s definition of mental health (the ability to love and to work) because women wanting jobs was attributed to a masculinity complex or envy of men. Between 1970 and 1980 the percentage of women working outside the home had risen from 43 to 51. Although women reported having difficulty juggling the roles of mother and provider, they found a way to be fulfilled void of childbearing. (Buhle, 1998). 

“They did not show any acknowledgement or appreciation that there was a difference and that there was a need for it, and that was around the time that we were giving a course here interdisciplinary, not in psychology. I still didn’t have a course here because they wouldn’t let me do it. And the men pretty well called the shots when they told you, you can’t do it, you just, you don’t do it.” (Greenglass, 2005). The book Man and Woman, Boy and Girl looks at intersex patients in explaining why social factors are more important than biological factors in gender identity and gender roles and brought nature vs nurture issues back into the spotlight. (Money & Ehrhardt, 1972). “Women affiliated with the American Academy of Psychoanalysis were among the first to pursue such subjects as women’s fear of success and inclinations toward neurotic dependency. They acknowledged the cultural forces inhibiting women’s progress in nondomestic realms, particularly the pressures inherent in a male-dominated society.” (Buhl, 1998). The patriarchy labels women as “nourishing facilitators” making them not mentally strong enough to take part in the aggressive male dominated work force without taking psychological and emotional hits. (Buhl, 1998).v These women don’t brag about their accomplishments and feel guilty for being able to go beyond stereotypes of feminine emotion and thought in order to become masculine in their jobs, just to be successful or try and be equal to men. Career women, whose professional status depends on the appropriation of masculine traits, frequently suffer from depression (Buhl, 1998). Recent research has connected the concept of stereotype threat with girls’ motivations to avoid success as an individual difference, girls might avoid participation in certain male-dominated fields due to real and perceived obstacles to success in those fields, although there is little that can be proven. (e.g., Spencer et al. 1999). 

Our depiction of gender identity is white and middle class. White women are described as intelligent, manipulative, and privileged by Black women, who are described as strong, determined, and having attitude. (Burack, 2002). “There it is, White fear of Black anger,” was written in Ladies Home Journal. (Edwards 1998: 77).   

Violence[edit | edit source] 

Herman (1996) has shown that feminists relied on the Psychological notion of “trauma” to criticize institutions like the family, to protect the children, to argue for revised policies, and to fight against male violence against women and children. 

Feminist Therapy

. Goldman found the connection between psychoanalysis and feminism as the recognition of sexuality as preeminent in the makeup of women as well as men. Freud found that men’s ideology was forced onto women in order to sexually repress them, connecting the public and private spheres for the subjugation of woman. (Buhle, 1998).

Issues With Traditional Therapies

Gender Biases

Psychotherapy is a male dominated practice and supports women’s adjustment to stereotypical gender roles instead of women’s liberation. (Kim & Rutherford, 2015).Inequality between the sexes and restrictions on sex roles are perpetuated by evolutionary psychology, but we could understand the role of gender in scientific communities by using feminist research strategies and admitting to gender bias. (Fehr, 2012).

Androcentrism

Psychological theories of female development were written by men who are completely uniformed by women’s actual experiences and the conditions under which they lived. (Kim & Rutherford, 2015). 

Principles of Empowerment

The Personal is Political

Feminist stance is largely marginalized and seen as standing outside of mainstream psychiatry, and there is the power-based distribution of knowledge, which gives therapists the ability to label women’s disorders without knowing their lived experiences. (Sawicki, 1991). 

Works Cited

Albrechtsen, J. (2015). THE CORRUPTION OF FEMINISM. Policy, 31(2), 3-6.

Ali, A. (2002). The Convergence of Foucault and Feminist Psychiatry: exploring emancipatory knowledge-building. Journal Of Gender Studies, 11(3), 233-242. doi:10.1080/0958923022000021287

Buhle, M. J. (1998). Feminism and its discontents: A century of struggle with psychoanalysis. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.

Burack, C. (2002). IV. Re-Kleining Feminist Psychoanalysis. Feminism & Psychology, 12(1), 33-38. doi:10.1177/0959353502012001006

Dane, G. (1994). Hysteria as feminist protest: Dora, Cixous, Acker. Women's Studies, 23(3), 231..

Fehr, C. (2012). Feminist Engagement with Evolutionary Psychology. Hypatia, 27(1), 50-72. doi:10.1111/j.1527-2001.2011.01221.x

Gough, B. (2004). Psychoanalysis as a resource for understanding emotional ruptures in the text: The case of defensive masculinities. British Journal Of Social Psychology, 43(2), 245-267.

Greenglass, E. (2005, March 1). Interview by A. Rutherford (Video Recording). Psychology’s Feminist Voices Oral History and Online Archive Project. Toronto, ON.

Herman, E. (1996). The romance of American psychology: Political culture in the age of experts: Chapter 10: The Curious Courtship of Psychology and Women’s Liberation

Kim, S., & Rutherford, A. (2015). FROM SEDUCTION TO SEXISM: Feminists Challenge the Ethics of Therapist--Client Sexua Albrechtsen, J. (2015). THE CORRUPTION OF FEMINISM. Policy, 31(2), 3-6. l Relations in 1970s America. History Of Psychology, 18(3), 283-296. doi:10.1037/a0039524

Maccoby, E. E., & Jacklin, C. N. (1974). The psychology of sex differences. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Mahoney, M. A. (1996). The problem of silence in feminist psychology. Feminist Studies, 22(3), 603.

Ostrove, J., & Zucker, A. (2011). At the Center: Diversity in Feminist Psychology. Sex Roles, 64(1-2), 143-145. doi:10.1007/s11199-010-9852-9

Ruck, N. (2015, August). Liberating minds: Consciousness-raising as a bridge between feminism and psychology in 1970s Canada.

History of Psychology, Vol 18(3), 297-311. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0039522

Zosuls, K., Miller, C., Ruble, D., Martin, C., & Fabes, R. (2011). Gender development research in sex roles: Historical trends and future directions. Sex Roles, 64, 826-842.