UNITATEA 2:

WOMEN PAST AND FUTURE

La sfritul acestui curs, studentul va putea:
s# elaboreze, n limba englez#, pe tema psihanalitic# a dezvolt#rii identit#&ii
psihosexuale feminine vs cea masculin#
s# utilizeze corect Future Tense Continuous



Cunotin&e privind regulile generale de formare a timpului Future Tense Continuous.





Engleza pentru admitere, Banta, Andrei, Ed. Teora, Bucureti, 1995, vol. 1;
Practise Your Tenses, Adamson, Donald, Longman, 1996;
Exerciii de gramatica limbii engleze, G#l#&eanu-Frnoag#, Georgiana, Editura
Albatros, Bucureti, 1987:





Dou# ore









Pre-reading


In which way do you think the condition of women has changed lately (for
better/worse)? Give arguments.



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Text Psychoanalysis and Women
(Book Review on The Psychology of Women: Psychoanalytic Perspectives, by
Arnold Richards and Phyllis Tyson)
This book compares Freuds theories with thencontemporary theories about
the mind of women. Valuable history is contained in the pages of this book both the
history of Freud and his relationships with women and the history of various
theoretical trends in examining the psychology of women. Other topics include
object choice in women, bisexuality, the meaning of perineal activity, and genital
anxiety. More than 24 analysts contributed to the 20 chapters in the book; most of the
contributors are from the US, but the book also includes 2 chapters from British
training analysts associated with the British Psychoanalytical Society. This volume
reflects a relatively homogeneous perspective about certain women. It describes
women who are troubled with conflicts about desire, where desire is misunderstood
as dangerous.
Which women are described? Janice Lieberman answers this question in her
commentary on the art chosen to illustrate in 6 sections of the bookFreud and the
Feminine, The Theory of the Psychology of Women, The Body in the Psychology of
Women, Motherhood, The Psychology of Homosexuality, and Women and Training
and Research. Lieberman states, These art works for the most part show women still
in conflict at fin de si(cle, not completely resolved as to the acceptance of their
bodies or roles. It is these troubled women whom the authors describe in their
clinical observations.
What is the perspective of the authors? Their predominant psychoanalytic
perspective presents women as having primary feminity, that is, female
development proceeds along lines that generate anxiety [called female genital
anxiety] about damage and loss similar to the fear of castration that troubles males.
Disappointing is the fact that this perspective and the re-formulations and more
innovative new formulations of Freuds major theories of female psychology
recapitulate Freuds basic misunderstanding of desire. In other words, the authors
know that Freuds psychology of women is inaccurate, and they argue against
Freuds perspective. However, their contributions do not further the readers
understanding of the psychology of women. Instead, they perpetuate old views by
applying Freuds misunderstanding to troubled women.
Freuds misunderstanding of desire, for example, is expressed in his
conceptualisation of the Oedipus complex: Freud proposed that a soon at the age of 3
to 5 years passionately desires his mother and views his father as a competitor. Out
of his own innate aggression, Freuds theory continues: the son wishes to destroy his
father. When the son recognises that his fathers superior strength could turn against
him, he suffers the castration anxiety. This anxiety, according to Freud, causes the
child to give up his desire for his mother, to reconstruct his desire as dangerous, and
finally to identify with his fathers aggression.
An alternative interpretation, one emerging from an understanding of
attachment behaviours and from early mother-infant observation research, is that the
son reaches out in innocence to his mother, loving out of his own nature the one that
his father also happens to love. The son has neither sexual desire for his mother nor
murderous rage for his father. []
Applying the alternative interpretation of desire to the daughter, the daughter
reaches out in innocence to her mother, loving out of her own nature the one whom
her father loves. Furthermore, she reaches out in innocence to her father, loving out
of her own nature the one whom her mother loves. In initial attunement, both
identification and affection are united and focused on the primary caregivers
regardless of the gender of the caregivers or the infant Undifferentiated
experiences within the caregivers/infants attunement are experienced as physical or
bodily events and thus are internalised without awareness of separateness or conflict
and are maintained with a strong sense of security.
If the daughters tenderness is fostered, she will strengthen her identification
with mother and her bond of affection with father. In differentiation after 18 months
of age, boys retain affection for the first caregiver (mother) but shift identification to
the father. Girls retain identification with the first caregiver but shift affectional ties
to the father. The shifted function, whether it is the shift of identification or the shift
or affection, must rely on mental images. Mental images are developed with greater
awareness of separateness between the child and the parent The function
(identification or affection) that is shifted becomes more highly invested and more
vulnerable to shame because it is experienced as less secure than the earlier state
where the functions were fused and experienced without awareness of emotional
separateness. Although the child gives up a degree of emotional security,
differentiation and the shift of function increase psychological autonomy For girls,
then, gender identity occurs through the integration of ongoing identification with
mother. For boys, gender identity is established as being different from mother.

LANGUAGE FOCUS

New Vocabulary: to reach out attunement; caregiver, caretaker; regardless of vs
regarding; to shift, a shift, shifted; to rely on/upon, reliable weather/person; to fuse;
to give up; to foster; tender(ness); strong, strength, to strengthen; gender; degree vs
rank or grade; to occur, occurrence; ongoing (adj.).

GRAMMAR FOCUS
1.The verb give + preposition
in = to hand in/give smth to an authorized person/surrender
off = to release/produce (vapour)
out = to become exhausted (supplies,power); to announce; to fail/collapse
up = to leave/abandon/surrender; to no longer protect.

2.The Future Progressive
Use: to express:
an action in progress at a certain time in the future.
Time Expressions: tomorrow at 5 p.m., tonight from 7 to 9 p.m., a.s.o..
Form:
Affirmative: S + shall/will + be + verb -ing.(short form: ll).
Interrogative: Shall/will + S + be + verb -ing.?
Negative: S + shall/will + not + be + verb -ing.(short form: shant/wont).

()"*+$*!


1.Finish up the following text (from a teenagers point of view, using the simple
future and the future progressive).
When My about to Divorce Parents Will Be in Court
My parents have received a subpoena for their first divorce session. So, tomorrow at
10 a.m., they will be trying to reach a consensus, and their lawyers will be bargaining
the terms of divorce
2.The Career Woman
Fill in the table below to describe the existential situation of career women
nowadays:
Issue at stake Drawbacks Advantages
Building a family life
Children upbringing and education
Supporting their husbands
a.s.o.



Identification, affection