title: Fear and envy: sexual difference and the economies of feminist critique in psychoanalytic discourse.
abstract: This essay examines Freud's construction of a mythical moment during early childhood, in which differences between male and female sexual identities are said to originate. It focuses on the way in which Freud divides fear and envy between the sexes, allocating the emotion of (castration) fear to men, and that of (penis) envy to women. On the one hand, the problems of this construction are pointed out, but on the other hand, it is shown that even a much-maligned myth may still provide food for thought. Then, four critiques of Freud which have been articulated by prominent feminist psychoanalysts -- Karen Horney, Nancy Chodorow, Luce Irigaray, and Jessica Benjamin -- are presented, as well as the alternative visions of sexual identities which these thinkers have developed. The basic metaphors or economies guiding these visions of sexual difference are appraised in terms of their breadth and depth, with particular reference to their ability to acknowledge and integrate the presence of fear and envy as passions which are evoked but also repressed in the face of sexual difference. ...
authors.affiliation: The Cohn Institute of the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas, Tel Aviv University.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Brunner
mesh_terms: D019513:Feminism; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D011574:Psychoanalytic Theory; D012723:Sex; D014933:Women's Rights / Q000266:history*