WGSS 3998 Lecture Notes - Lecture 21: Benjamin Spock, Sigmund Freud, Natalism

• School: UConn
• Department: Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
• Course: WGSS 3998
• Professor: Chrystal Smith

Document Summary

In 1909, sigmund freud was invited by former apa president g. stanley hall to make his first and only trip to the u. s. freud delivered a series of lectures on psychoanalysis at clark. University, stirring up enthusiasm among progressive listeners who were excited about his candid acknowledgment of human sexuality. Feminists thought his early ideas about female sexuality held promise and encouraged him to write more about women; however, when he did, many women were dismayed. Freud defined female sexuality and the feminine personality in terms of their difference from a male norm. According to freud, in the process of resigning themselves to their inferior genitalia, females develop specific feminine personality characteristics, including masochism (freud, 1933). Masochism is defined as deriving pleasure from one"s own pain. Of course, it wasn"t mothers who were mugging people and starting wars, but wylie (and others) held them responsible.