If I recall, the reason why women had an inferior superego was that they
didn't have the castration anxiety that men did, therefore, they did not
resolve their genital conflict the way that a young boy did. The young boy
had a reason to be fearful, reject their unnatural love and identify with
the father. The woman, as she was already "maimed", did not have any
incentive to do the same.
Freud was only attempting to find support for the very commonly held notion
at the time that women were not equal to men in areas of morality. There
are numerous other psychologists from that time period who felt the same way.
At 10:49 AM 8/25/99 -0400, Stephen Black wrote:
>People may recall that last week I referred to Freud's outrageous
>theory that because women lack a penis, they develop an inferior
>superego and therefore inferior sense of morality. Here's the quote
>relating to this.
>
>On the inferior moral development of women:
>
>"I cannot escape the notion (although I hesitate to give it
>expression) that for women the level of what is ethically normal is
>different from what it is to men. Their super-ego is never so
>inexorable, so impersonal, so independent of its emotional origins as
>we require it to be in men. Character-traits which critics of every
>epoch have brought up against women--that they show less sense of
>justice than men, that they are less ready to submit to the great
>necessities of life, that they are more often influenced in their
>judgements by feelings of affection or hostility--all these would be
>amply accounted for by the modification of their super-ego which we
>have already inferred. We must not allow ourselves to be deflected
>from such conclusions by the denials of the feminists, who are anxious
>to force us to regard the two sexes as completely equal in position
>and worth."
> Freud, as cited in Pyke, 1982
>
>Pyke, S. (1982). Confessions of a reluctant ideologist. Canadian
>Psychology, 23, 125-133.
>
>
>Sigmund, shame on you!
>
>
>BTW, notice that my source is a secondary one. I tried to improve on
>it by going back to Pyke (which was _very_ lost in my files) and
>discovered to my surprise that she cites a secondary source
>herself.This isn't satisfactory. For all we know, poor Freud never
>actually said it. Does anyone know what the primary source is for this
>quote? Where did Freud actually say it?
>
>And while we're on history, I've been alerted to a new web site of the
>archives of the APA at http://www.apa.org/archives.
>
>But I wouldn't rush to it. It promises all sort of neat historical
>stuff on American psychology, but when you try to access it all you
>get is the dreaded "under construction". Shame on you, APA (for the
>second time)!)
>
>-Stephen
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Stephen Black, Ph.D. tel: (819) 822-9600 ext 2470
>Department of Psychology fax: (819) 822-9661
>Bishop's University e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Lennoxville, QC
>J1M 1Z7
>Canada Department web page at http://www.ubishops.ca/ccc/div/soc/psy
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
>
>
Deb
Deborah S. Briihl There are as many
Dept. of Psychology and Counseling ways to live as
Valdosta State University there are people in
Valdosta, GA 31698-0100 this world and each
[EMAIL PROTECTED] deserve a closer
Now in new Assoc. size! look..
http://chiron.valdosta.edu/dbriihl
You got so many dreams you don't know where to put them, so you better turn
a few of them loose... Fire
