Publisher's Note:
This book is the crystallization of Doris Bernstein's psychoanalytic thinking over three decades. It is a systematic exposition of her commitment to the concept of a gender-specific view of the clinical process. When Bernstein began to write these papers, she was already known as a revered teacher of clinical process and clinical theory and as a significant supervisor of psychoanalysis in the New York community. Gender pervades every aspect of mental functioning. This book indicates the extent to which gender impinges upon our understanding of mental life - the nature of unconscious fantasy, the organization of mental structures, anxieties, and the clinical process. Gender specificity is framed by the biological givens in the developmental process in males and females and how they undergo repression or reappear in circuitous ways throughout the life cycle. Much has been written on male gender identity. This corrective is on the presence of identifiable attributes that form the foundation of the representational world in the female. The woman's experience of her body profoundly shapes mental representations. This is also true in the shaping of anxieties. A typical dream has a house with windows all around - 'I am worried about getting locks, it's so open' - which may be allusions to a fear of invasion and a fear of genital entry. The traumatic moments for the little girl are based on the particular anatomical and physiological constellation, the 'equipment' with which she traverses her developmental path. Genital anxieties in the female have to do with access, diffusivity and penetration. This book is an essential document in the ongoing reformulation of psychoanalytic theory andtechnique. It is important in the education of psychoanalysts and psychotherapists, and, in an era when gender role definition is constantly being reexamined, it is part of the gender dialogue within law, medicine, and education.
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