With reference to Amy Wilson�s article cited in my previous message
(above), Wison writes on Loftus�s studies into supposed repressed
memories: �Freud�s entire psychological construct [was] based on a few
female patients.� This oft-repeated notion is actually far from the truth.
The remarkable fact is that although the great majority of Freud�s early
patients were women, his fundamental theories of psychosexual development
were based on male infants. It was not until the 1920s, some thirty years
after he started his psychoanalytic work, that he worked out his theories
of female psychosexual development. (Prior to that he had simply stated
that the psychosexual sexual development of infant girls was analogous to
that of male infants.) But don�t take my word for it. Here is Freud in a
1935 footnote to *An Autobiographical Study*:

�The information about infantile sexuality was obtained from the study of
men and the theory deduced from it was concerned with male children�
(1925, Standard Edition vol. 20, p.36, n1).

So how come that although most of Freud�s early patients were women, his
theory of psychosexual development was male-based? I have my own
explanation for this, but I�d be interested to hear what other TIPSters
think.

Allen Esterson
Former lecturer, Science Department
Southwark College, London
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

www.human-nature.com/esterson/index.html
www.butterfliesandwheels.com/articleprint.php?num=10

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