No doubt this is the moment Alice ought to seize. Now is the time for her to come on stage herself.
Irigaray, This Sex Which Is Not One
How often, when we start with the subject of woman, do we slip easily and almost imperceptibly into considering the differences between men and women? Then our focus, which lighted briefly on one—woman—is on differences, between two rather than on one. The subject or focus has become man and woman. This paper is on one—woman—and her separate line of female development. We are so accustomed to masculine theory and images that this becomes a difficult enterprise. Even in one of his last papers, Freud (1938), after revising many aspects of theory, remained steadfast in his view of the first three years of life as “masculine” for both sexes:
The female genitals long remain unknown…. With the phallic phase and in the course of it the sexuality of early childhood reaches its dissolution. Thereafter boys and girls have different histories…. [B]oth start off from the premise of the universal presence of the penis. But now the paths of the sexes diverge. [p. 154; emphasis added]
In pursuit of a steady focus on woman, I will start this presentation not in the beginning or the early years, but with female adolescence.
I look at my face in the glass and see a halfborn woman. [Rich 1978, p. 41]
[A] girl in the years of puberty becomes quiet within and begins to think about the wonders that are happening to her body. I experience that, too…. I think that what is happening to me is so wonderful, not only what can be seen on my body, but all that is taking place inside…. Each time I have a period—and that has only been three times—I have the feeling that in spite of all the pain, unpleasantness, and nastiness, I have a sweet secret, and that is why, although it is nothing but a nuisance to me in a way, I always long for the time that I shall feel that secret within me again. [Anne Frank, at age 14 years 6 months, quoted in Dalsimer 1986, pp. 117f; emphasis added]
What does the young “halfborn” adolescent girl see in the glass? She “sees” in adolescence, as she does throughout her life, with her increasingly feminine mind and half womanly, rapidly changing body, which provides particularly rich opportunities for observations on female development.
The adolescent girl is “halfborn” at puberty, since adolescence occurs between her early childhood years and womanhood, on the way but not yet having arrived. Puberty ushers in early adolescence and, as late adolescence wanes, adulthood begins. Work, both outside and inside the home, job, and career, and (potentially) pregnancy and maternity loom ahead. In the second quotation Anne Frank, at age fourteen and a half, poignantly expresses her early adolescent experience: “…. what is happening to me is so wonderful, and not only what can be seen on my body, but all that is taking place inside.” This paper has a particular focus on the “wonderful…inside” happenings of feminine development in adolescence.
Turbulence, discontent, rebellion, and the problematic tortuous paths of adolescent identity formation have dominated discussions in the psychoanalytic literature on adolescence. One classic and oft-repeated descriptive statement was made by Anna Freud (1958), who characterized adolescence as a period of craziness. Later psychoanalytic formulations emphasize redoing earlier separation-individuation processes and the second chance or second individuation process (Blos 1980) that is said to occur in adolescence. These concepts, based on classical psychoanalytic theory though changed and modified, contain explicit and implicit conceptions of female development which have remained essentially unchanged for many decades. In contrast to an emphasis on troublesome difficulties, separation-individuation problems, and other forms of female deficiencies, recent formulations of feminine development emphasize interdependence, mutuality, affiliation, connection, and a female “relational” self (Gilligan 1982, Gilligan et al. 1990, Miller 1984, among others). These theoretical formulations of feminine development are based on the concept of a separate line of development with unique female developmental characteristics. Other authors emphasize concepts of primary femininity, early pregenital identity development, and the ongoing influence of the mother-daughter relationship (Chodorow 1978, Notman et al. 1986, 1991, Stoller 1976, Zilbach 1987, 1990, 1993).
The widening psychosocial world of adolescents and their families has been characterized as filled with “separations” or “breaking away” from family instead of emphasizing loosening, expansion, and differentiation of the goals of the adolescent in her family. The oft-stated identity question: “What will I become?” is understood as a sign of impending rupture with the family, as opposed to heralding an expansion of differences from and within the family. Even future motherhood has been considered as imposing restrictions and limitations on the adolescent girl and on the adult female (Deutsch 1944).
With the ongoing psychological development of femininity in the center of our formulations, continuity, expansion, and loosening of ties in adolescence will be emphasized, not separation, autonomy, and independence. This requires a major shift in our thinking. For example, in this paper the ongoing vicissitudes of the mother–daughter relationship are considered to be as significant, in adolescence, as the daughter’s increasing erotic attraction to and relationship with her father. This requires an inclusion and integration of continuity and change, rather than the “breaking” of ties, as a major factor in development within a multifaceted, always changing, ongoing adolescent daughter–mother relationship.
My focus will remain on central processes of feminine development in adolescence, and the term adolescent female will be used throughout this paper instead of girl or young woman. No intermediate term is available, and so adolescent female seems the best choice at present. Female is a term used by many authors, specifically for the biological aspects of women. As used by this author, however, adolescent female is a term which is meant to go beyond biology towards a broader biopsychosocial approach. For a discussion of adolescence, groundwork must be laid with definitions of some basic concepts—primary femininity and reciprocal identification—and a brief summary of early female development. I will then return to female adolescent development and discuss sexuality, identity formation, and the psychological importance of the development of a new female organ, the breasts, and a unique event, menarche, as well as the processes of menstruation.
The term primary femininity denotes an early unconflicted sense of being female, consisting of several component elements: primitive female body awareness, early imitation and identification with mother, and a cognitive component of “knowing what goes with being a girl.” This is a definition originally used by Stoller (1976) to fill in a missing gap, the empty space in female development in the early months and years before the occurrence of the so-called Oedipus complex. Observations of infants and toddlers make abundantly clear that a sense of being female exists well before the young child’s observation of anatomical differences at age 3 and beyond. This paper presupposes the ongoing presence and evolution of primary femininity as relevant to all phases of female development. Primitive psychological manifestations of primary femininity appear in the earliest postnatal moments, if not before, and continue throughout a woman’s life, undergoing many changes, with expansions and diminutions alongside continuity.
The concept of primary femininity defines a central aspect of femininity and the feminine self. However, the term primary femininity as a descriptor (or signifier) is rather bland, perhaps empty, and certainly colorless. The term active engulfment has been used by this author to characterize primary or core femininity or female life energy (possibly libido). Active engulfment describes a biopsychological center of early female psychological activity which continues throughout life. Active engulfment is a force of pro-creativity which will take many forms in the course of being tamed and civilized over the female life cycle (Zilbach 1987, 1990). The earliest biological form is the engulfing of the sperm by the egg at the moment of fertilization. At the important moment, the sperm does not penetrate; rather, the ovum surrounds the sperm (Johnson 1985).
One component of primary femininity, or female selfhood, is based on early internal female body awareness. Though the female infant’s internal experience is largely unknown, we can speculate about the internal effect of external influences, particularly with her mother. Touching, holding, smiling, vocalizing, eye-to-eye contact, and attunement are of critical importance in the early bonding and attachment processes of mother and infant. The attunement of the mother to her female infant is to an other who is fundamentally like her. Thus the beginning and continuing growth of primary femininity is stimulated within the infant as an inner psychobiological resonance within her body.
By the middle of the second year, female body awareness in primitive body representations have become distinct. Masturbation is observed with frequency well within the second year of life (Clower 1979). Awareness of vaginal secretions and some primitive form of sensing the uterus as a container may contribute to an internal sense of the female body (Kestenberg 1968). As one expression of this, the wish for a baby becomes evident and has been carefully studied (Kleeman 1976, Parens et al. 1977, Roiphe and Galenson 1981). Infant researchers report their direct observations with general agreement that between 18 months and 3 years the little girl consolidates an irreversible sense of being female and thus has a primitive sense of a female self (Kestenberg 1968, Parens et al. 1977, Roiphe and Galenson 1981, Stoller 1976, 1980, Tyson and Tyson 1990).
A second component element of primary femininity develops from early imitation and identification with mother. From the beginning the mother–female infant relationship is characterized by an interactive process of reciprocal identification. The range of attunement responses of the mother to her female infant is based on mother’s identifications with her own mother and with her infant daughter. The female infant receives the behavioral expressions of these identifications and develops responses as her part of the reciprocal identification process. Primitive reciprocal identificatory interactions are central to the development of primary femininity as active engulfment grows within the female infant. Maternal identifications are evident in the behavior of 2-year-old girls as they preen and practice baby care in doll play just like their mothers. The importance of the reciprocal identification processes is not limited to the early years of female development; rather, it is ongoing throughout a woman’s life and will be emphasized in our discussion of adolescence.
The next periods of development contain much that is of interest, though only very selected aspects will be discussed.
The common use of the term oedipal is a serious misnomer for this period of female development. The story of Oedipus is a classic male myth about the boy’s inevitable love for his mother and rivalry with his father. In this phase of female development, the young girl increases her expressions of interest in her father and develops a desire to have her father’s baby. This desire combines with an already existing desire to have a baby, like mother, which was well established in the preceding period of development. Prior formulations have focused on the girl’s interest in or turning toward father and away from mother, but her ongoing identification with mother is as important as her interest in father.
The turning toward father is assisted by the processes of reciprocal identification, receptivity of the mother, and the little girl’s increasing identification with her mother. The varied and myriad manifestations of identification, being like mother, include mother’s relationship with father. It is noteworthy that the wish for a baby is not a substitute for a wish for a penis, but develops at first from the little girl’s ongoing identification with mother. Envy and turning away from mother may occur during this period, assisted by encouragement and love from both parents as well as acceptance of the young girl’s angry and aggressive wishes, which usually are directed towards the mother.
After the initial establishment and early development of primary femininity, in this developmental phase there is a surge of genital interest and other manifestations of childhood sexuality. In little girls there is an increasing frequency of masturbation and vaginal exploration (Clower 1975, Kestenberg 1968). During this period the discovery of the anatomical differences between the sexes also occurs.
The little girl becomes more exhibitionistic and practices her expanding conception of femininity. Elaboration of a feminine ego ideal is an important aspect of psychic development in this period. The developing female ego ideal includes many aspects of identifications with mother, not only mother’s breasts which she may envy, but also her intelligence, activity, and general sexuality (Blum 1976, 1977).
The complexity and outcome of this phase will be influenced by many forces, including temperament, cognitive development, and the environmental circumstances of the child’s life. Mother continues to be more than the little girl’s rival for father: there is also a similarity and a coincidence of interest between them. The oft-noted female characteristics of affiliation, connection, and cooperation will be present in a nascent form in this developmental period, observed in the growing and continuing reciprocal identificatory processes in the mother–daughter relationship (Gilligan 1982, Gilligan et al. 1990, Miller 1984, Notman et al. 1991).
The “latency” or middle-childhood girl develops a further array of feminine roles which she carries into adolescence and adulthood. Female friendships flower during this period, and relationships with other important adults, both male and female, will expand and elaborate the structure and content of the feminine ego ideal.
Sexuality continues throughout this period, with masturbation and other genital sensations present though often disguised or hidden (Clower 1975, 1979). The importance of the clitoris as a female organ of pleasure becomes more evident (Kulish 1991). Active and exciting games such as riding horseback on father’s knee will produce clitoral sexual stimulation. In this period, more independent games such as jumprope and other girls’ games may provide stimulation of the clitoris, at times to orgastic proportions. At the same time, the development of the superego disguises, forbids, or obscures the sexual meaning of these activities (Tyson and Tyson 1990). Significant elaboration of the internal structures of femininity occur in late latency. Of particular importance are the body. image and female body awareness, which contribute significantly to the developments in adolescence that we will discuss in the next section.
Early female development as conceptualized in the preceding sections is significantly different from the classical Freudian view of female development (Freud 1905, 1925, 1931, 1933). Since this is well known and can be found in many publications, only a brief summary will be presented here.
Freud postulated that the first three years of psychic life are the same, that is, masculine, for both sexes.
The third phase is that known as the phallic one, which is, as it were, a forerunner of the final form taken by sexual life and already much resembles it. It is to be noted that it is not the genitals of both sexes that play a part at this stage, but only the male one (the phallus). The female genitals long remain unknown…. [1938, p. 154]
Divergence in the development of girls and boys occurs only with and after the discovery of anatomical differences. At that point the little girl discovers her lack of a penis, and this discovery becomes a central organizer of subsequent female development. Her deficiency, lack, or inferiority is the “bedrock” of classical female psychosexual development. As the above quotation from the last version of “An Outline of Psycho-Analysis” indicates, this conviction remained unchanged for Freud. In contrast, the early psychic existence and importance of the female genitals as part of primary femininity and reciprocal identification have been discussed in this paper as essential aspects of female development. These concepts, and not classical Freudian theory, are the foundation for our discussion of adolescent female development.
Major changes in identify formation, the adolescent development of primary femininity/active engulfment, and modifications of the mother–daughter relationship are all part of the evident growing sexuality of female adolescents. Underlying female adolescent sexual activity is her desire to take-in in an adolescent version of primary femininity/active engulfment. Thus her sexually focused desire to actively surround, contain, and take in is in distinct contrast to the adolescent male’s phallic desires expressed by thrusting and penetration. The adolescent female is not merely a passive partner for the sexual scoring of the adolescent male. Her desire to take in and surround describes active adolescent female sexuality, not her being passively penetrated. Painful and wounding aspects of the experience of adolescent female sexuality are often emphasized, but the positive feminine trait, the expression of adolescent active engulfment, is not adequately characterized by an emphasis on pain or on being penetrated. Being penetrated is only a part of the female experience of intercourse, and such a description has a strong, primarily phallic tone. This is in contrast to describing the female experience as taking in and containing, or actively engulfing, the penis. The entire genital apparatus and the entire female body (including the breasts), and not only the vagina, are part of and participate actively in female adolescent sexuality.
Sometimes, when I lie in bed at night, I have a terrible desire to feel my breasts and to listen to the quiet, rhythmic beat of my heart. I already had these kinds of feelings subconsciously before I came here, because I remember that once when I slept with a girlfriend, I had a strong desire to kiss her, and that I did so. I could not help being terribly inquisitive over her body, for she always kept it hidden from me. I asked whether, as proof of our friendship, we should feel one anothers’ breasts, but she refused. I go into ecstasies when I see the naked figure of a woman, such as Venus, for example. It strikes me as so wonderful and exquisite, that I have difficulty in stopping the tears rolling down my cheeks…. [Anne Frank, quoted in Dalsimer 1986, pp. 116f.]
The exquisite wonder of the changes in the young girl’s body as she develops breasts is a striking and neglected aspect of her feminine adolescent development. In early adolescence, primed by earlier pubertal changes, female sexual stirrings are stimulated by the early budding of breast development. These buds are new, and girls eagerly await the full flowering of their breasts as they very carefully scrutinize each other’s chests. In some subcultures the existence of these new female body parts is marked by the acquisition of the first brassiere. The girl whose development lags behind in her peer group anxiously desires to join them. Comparisons are frequently made by the young adolescent girl of her breasts with the breasts of mother, her friends, female teachers, and other women. As her breasts grow larger, they become part of the girl’s overall estimate of her own attractiveness. The female development of breasts is quite different from the pubertal male penile and testicular changes. These male organs have been present from birth, throughout the earliest years, and of course adolescent enlargement and changes in size and shape are important to the boy. The girl, in her earlier development, has seen and experienced her mother’s breasts but has had none of her own. As mentioned earlier, the acquisition of her first brassiere is an important rite de passage to be noted as a unique event, marking the recognition of breasts in female development.
One of the classical psychoanalytic concepts of adolescence that is frequently considered explanatory is the “second chance” or second individuation process (Blos 1980). Though perhaps relevant to other aspects of development, this concept is noted here in order to emphasize the unique aspects of feminine adolescence. Breast development, menarche, and subsequent menstruation are not second chances—these are firsts! Moreover, adolescents, both male and female, are interested in and intrigued by the physical attributes of the same and the other sex. As stated by one author, “Adolescent girls visually undress boys routinely, just as the reverse happens, but girls keep this a secret among themselves” (Sugar 1990, p. 3).
Menarche, or the first menstrual period, is another unique female event that does not have any previous versions in female development; it, too, is a significant first. The onset of menses marks and contributes to the ongoing development of primary femininity. The beautiful description by Anne Frank bears repetition:
[W]hat is happening to me is so wonderful, and not only what can be seen on my body, but all that is taking place inside. I never discuss myself with anybody: that is why I have to talk to myself about this.
Each time I have a period—and that has only been three times—I have the feeling that in spite of all the pain, unpleasantness, and nastiness, I have a sweet secret, and that is why, although it is nothing but a nuisance to me, I always long for the time that I shall feel that secret within me again. [age 14 years 6 months in Dalsimer 1986, p. 117]
Anne Frank, in this passage, refers to her “sweet secret…within,” menstruation, in conjunction with what can be seen on her body. She has experienced earlier body changes, including newly curved hips, the emergence of breasts, and newly grown pubic hair. For many years the popular expressions used to denote menstruation, such as “the curse” and “monthly sickness,” reflected a negative view of menstruation. Anne Frank’s “sweet secret within,” in the form of the term “I have my friend,” has been added to the vocabulary of young girls as cultural attitudes have changed.
The female center of procreativity was defined above as primary femininity fueled by active engulfment. Menstruation as a biopsychosocial process adds significantly to the adolescent development of primary femininity. Though the little girl has had some early intimations of the presence of female internal organs, the menses focus and enhance the adolescent’s positive awareness of her uterus and other associated reproductive organs.
In addition, menarche and the menstrual process create new possibilities in the girl’s enlarging identifications with her mother. In many instances mother’s instructions about menarche have induced the attitudes with which this event is received by the girl. However, it is not only the information but the underlying reflections of mother’s feminine self image that are important in the mother–daughter interaction around menstruation.
Menstruation also marks the establishment of reproduction as a biological possibility for girls. There are changes in the feminine body image and feminine expansion of the ego ideal that now include her reproductive potential. This is further enlarged, particularly in late adolescence and in adulthood, if motherhood is accomplished.
Adolescence is a developmental period of expansion of relationships outside the family and into the broader arenas of society. These have been characterized as separation or “breaking away” from the family, particularly from mother and from significant other adults. The terms loosening and expansion are more relevant descriptive terms for female adolescents. Though rebellion and turbulence may characterize this period, recent studies do indicate that there are other available pathways for adolescents. These include a rather steady and relatively calm progression through these years (Offer 1969).
The obvious and sometimes abrasive differences in the values and customs of teenagers from those of their parents are evident for both males and females. However, they may be seen as a difference as opposed to a total rejection of parental values. Though differing from and battling with adults is certainly important, a feeling of overall acceptance for the girl, particularly by her mother, continues to be most important. The differentiations and comparisons that female adolescents make contain an implicit ongoing identification with the mother. For example, adolescent girls will borrow their mothers’ jewelry, makeup, and other items at the same time as they apparently express verbal rejection of their mothers’ appearance.
As adolescence proceeds into late adolescence, the manifold expressions will include more obvious acknowledgment of the values and behaviors of mother and other family figures. These may be accompanied by verbal rejection, but if we look below the surface we see gender-identity development in late adolescence as containing many aspects of the young woman’s family, and particularly of her mother.
A clinical example will illustrate some difficulties in the development of primary femininity and the mother–daughter relationship, especially in adolescence:
Ms. A., an attractive professional woman in her mid-twenties, had symptoms of depression with crying jags, decreased appetite, and some weight loss. These symptoms and feelings were perplexing to her, as she generally regarded herself as well adjusted and having had, in her words, “a relatively normal and happy childhood.” As Ms. A. told her story in her psychoanalysis, she soon developed a positive transference to her male analyst and explored the complexities of her relationship with her father and with the analyst. She was her father’s acknowledged favorite child. He had taken care of her physical, emotional, and other needs, including academic ones. He was solicitous and loving, rubbing her foot nightly when, as a school-aged child, she had developed a recurrent, severe, undiagnosable “neuralgia.” In addition, he did her homework with her every night, “not giving me the answers but asking me many questions so I learned to think.” When doing this nightly work they sat together on a couch in which she was held tightly between the couch arm and her father. Several years of analysis seemed to suffice for a resolution of her “oedipal” ties to her father.
Her life progressed, and yet she was unable to marry or have children. She returned to psychoanalysis, saying, “I could not really see myself walking down the aisle without crying and feeling miserable,” and she began to cry, muttering “my father….”
A first dream heralded the work to be done: “I’m sitting at a table and a woman is pouring tea for me. Through a window I can see lush, fertile greenery. Inside we are sitting and the tea is being poured from beautiful pots into lovely cups and saucers.” She talked about fertility, pregnancy, and children in her associations to the greenery, and pleasure in having tea with this older woman. Her story this time revealed distress in what had heretofore seemed an entirely positive relationship with her father during adolescence. He had continued his interest in her studies but was not interested in growing aspects of her adolescent femininity such as her dates or the beauty of her prom dress. She felt disappointed and asked, “Where was my mother?” She complained about her mother: “When I started high school she was so strict, she did not let me wear nylons or lipstick. All my girlfriends were wearing makeup and even dating. She was not interested in what my girlfriends were doing. She had so many rules.”
These are familiar complaints of adolescent females which seem to be filled with desire to rebel against mother and her rules. This is one aspect of these complaints, but as analysis proceeded, other aspects began to emerge. She repeated, “Where was my mother? She was not around, she was only in the kitchen, she was not with me.” As the patient reviewed and explored her adolescent world that extended well beyond home, she became aware of the absence of her mother’s influence. She discovered that she had missed her mother, saying her mother had delivered “rules but not recipes.” She realized that emotional distance had developed and increased during adolescence, particularly between herself and her mother. She eventually said, “She [mother] didn’t teach me how to be a teenager or a woman.” In the psychoanalytic amplification of her material, her lack of connection with her mother indicated impediments to her identifications with mother in adolescence and earlier, which had interfered especially with the development of her femininity in late adolescence and early womanhood.
Her mother was a powerful negative force in adolescence, setting rigid rules about female behavior including dress, makeup, and dating. As indicated in Ms. A.’s statement, “She gave me rules but not recipes,” her mother did not adequately nurture her adolescent feminine wishes and desires. Likewise, in childhood, mother had not assisted Ms. A.’s growing interest in her father. And it is likely that other aspects of primary femininity were not sufficiently supported. Particularly in the complexities of reciprocal identificatory processes, the relationship between mother and daughter was narrow, stilted, and impoverished.
In this example we note by its absence the importance of an ongoing and continuing enlargement of the full range of feminine identifications with mother that is necessary for female adolescent development. Ms. A. experienced increasing distance and nonexpansion of maternal identifications. Early development of primary femininity, though not seriously impaired, was characterized by impoverishment or weakness instead of full strength.
An example of this in early adolescence occurred at menarche, when the patient received “clean supplies—sanitary napkins but no talk” from her mother. Scientific information was then provided by her father, but this was not sufficient for Ms. A. to develop a full understanding or to receive affective support with regard to this important feminine event.
Borderline, narcissistic, and other serious psychic disturbances have received increasing attention, and most authors agree on the importance of pregenital pathology or disturbances of early development. Kernberg is an example of a current psychoanalytic writer who emphasizes this position in his classic volume Borderline Conditions and Pathological Narcissism (1975):
Many of the authors referred to above [Fairbairn, Klein, Jacobson, Greenson, and Khan, among others] also consider the genetic-dynamic aspects of borderline personality organization, and all of them stress the importance of pregenital, especially oral conflicts in these patients, and the unusual intensity of their pregenital aggression. They also stress the peculiar combination of pregenital drive derivatives and genital ones…. [pp. 7–8]
Such statements often remain non-gendered, but Kernberg becomes more specific about the girl:
Severe oral pathology of the kind mentioned tends to develop the positive Oedipal strivings prematurely in the girl. Genital strivings for father are used as a substitute gratification of oral-dependent needs that have been frustrated by the dangerous mother. This effort tends to be undermined by the contamination of the father image with pregenital aggression deflected from mother and projected onto him, and also because oral rage and especially oral envy powerfully reinforce penis envy in women. [p. 42]
Our discussion of the early genital period has emphasized the importance of assistance by the mother of the girl’s feelings for the father and vice versa. Kernberg, like others in their non-gendered descriptions, seems to maintain the position of Freud in regard to early development, that is, there is no difference at best, or gender is masculine for both sexes in the first three years of life. When Kernberg describes the girl he resorts to explanations of premature oedipal strivings and penis envy. These are not only insufficient for the understanding of female development and pathology, but, as I have noted earlier, they are also inaccurate with regard to female development as far as the Oedipus complex is concerned. These formulations require an understanding of a separate line of development in order to be applied to women.
In this paper female adolescent development was characterized in terms of an expansion of primary femininity and female identity formation. The implications of breast development and menarche were discussed as new events occurring in early female adolescence, in distinction to what has traditionally been the primary explanatory concept of adolescence, namely a reworking in a “second chance” individuation process.
A separate line of female psychological development was presented, starting at birth or before, with emphasis placed on primary femininity/active engulfment, female identity development and the ongoing development of a mother–daughter relationship in reciprocal identificatory processes. Both differentiation and simultaneous interdependence were described as important aspects of the female adolescent’s relationship with her mother in particular, as well as with others.
As far as the case presentation is concerned, without such a theoretical orientation in regard to development the difficulties of Ms. A. when she returned to analysis might have continued to remain outside the therapeutic arena.
In the first dream of the analysis, the mother/analyst is very much present in the wished-for tea party. In this dream the vessels, cups, and saucers, are beautiful and admired by both women. As in the dream, our analytic cups containing an understanding of, and theoretical formulations about, female psychology have been rather empty. In particular, female psychoanalytic theory has been, at best, minimal. Though our cups do not run over, we are beginning to pour tea, in a sense, as we focus on and formulate a separate line of female development.
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