Abstract: . . .  representative of society and of culture itself. He generally has far more social wealth than women, whatever his class. His identity is built in part out of denying the mother's (wife's) power and devaluing her, attitudes he conveys to the daughter. She mothers sons who must grow contemptuous of her to be men. Thus patriarchy reproduces itself, reinforced by "the fruits of civilization"—the knowledge and the political and economic Page 16 systems which reflect and reinforce the splits between nurturance and autonomy, public and private, male and female. As long as patriarchy exists, differences will inevitably be translated into relations of dominance and submission, superiority and inferiority. Feminists are discovering that these are indeed poisonous, bitter fruits. They nourish only to destroy, first, the potential of half the human race, and now, as Dinnerstein argues, perhaps us all. We cannot re-vision . . .
. . .  (countertransference) complicity. Patriarchal social relations and male psychological development require that the male therapist, too, deny the power of the mother. This denial may be reinforced by some forms of psychoanalytic theory and training, especially the concentration on Oedipal conflicts and the ego, which often constitute the material of orthodox psychoanalysis. The therapist's own unresolved preoedipal conflicts may continue to affect him and will thus enter the psychodynamics of the analytic situation (and affect the patient) through transference and countertransference. An orthodox female analyst may also have trouble with this material, but it is more likely to emerge in the transference relation with a female patient simply because of their gender identity. (3) "Penis envy" is largely symbolic and should be traced back to its preoedipal roots. The penis is a means of sexual access to the mother, who is after all the girl's first . . .
. . .  wishes) and ego boundary confusion between girl and mother. The mother's narcissistic attachment to the child makes the girl feel as if the mother would like to devour her, just as the child would like to devour the mother. This incorporation of the object is part of the internalization process and is felt as greedy in bad object relations. 14. Monique Wittig, "The Straight Mind," Questions féministes 7 (December 1979); Feminist Issues 1, 1 (Summer 1980). 15. On this point see Dinnerstein, pp. 91-114, and Adrienne Rich, Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution (New York: W. W. Norton, 1976), pp. 73-109. 16. René Descartes, Discourse on Method (Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1968). 17. Ibid., p. 54. Page 18 18. Ibid., p. 31. 19. Ibid., p. 78. 20. Ibid., p. 79. 21. For an account of early psychological development see Mahler et al., Psychological Birth, esp. . . .
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