Description
Book SynopsisInnovative redrawing of female anatomy appeared in the scientific literature and then in the popular press leading up to the Millenium. The surrounding structures of the clitoris, that small, vestigial organ, are part of a larger one, with equivalent structures to the penis. This knowledge was lost for centuries for complex social and cultural reasons. The new work disappeared in a wave of embarrassment and trivialisation, underpinned by anxiety. In the long and passionate debate within psychoanalysis over the theory of female sexuality, which has spanned more than a century and reached no definitive conclusion, this pattern of non-acceptance of ideas, their disappearance and then re-emergence later is a continually repeating one. It mirrors the characteristics of the female organs themselves, hidden, kept secret, circular and concentric in form, both physically but also generationally. Perhaps the time is right culturally to explore this further.
Trade Review‘Anne Zachary draws on a rich mix of history, biology, psychoanalytic theory, and a wealth of clinical experience in her study of female sexuality. She questions widely held beliefs about the female body, and suggests that a re-interpretation of the form and functions of female genitalia has important implications for how we can understand women’s social and sexual identities and experiences.’-Renée Danziger, fellow of the British Psychoanalytical Society
‘Anne Zachary draws on a rich mix of history, biology, psychoanalytic theory, and a wealth of clinical experience in her study of female sexuality. She questions widely held beliefs about the female body, and suggests that a re-interpretation of the form and functions of female genitalia has important implications for how we can understand women’s social and sexual identities and experiences.’-Renée Danziger, fellow of the British Psychoanalytical Society
Table of ContentsIntroduction
1 Womankind through history
2 The anatomy of the clitoris: a re - interpretation
3 The historical development of the psychoanalytic theory of female sexuality (1897 – 2000)
4 The anatomy of the clitoris: a psychic representation
The implications of the re – interpretation of the anatomy of the clitoris for clinical practice and psychoanalytic theory:
5 Bisexuality: the universal phenomenon
6 Motherhood: the fundamental aim
7 Femininity: the key to the box
8 Aggression: and the female form
9 Recent developments in the literature
Afterthoughts
