ABSTRACT
The study of female sexuality is a relatively neglected area in psychoanalysis. This discipline centres on the Oedipus complex, "the nodal complex of neurosis", and its method is the study of normality by means of the pathological. A particularly rewarding approach to the study of female sexuality can be made by taking the theory of narcissism as a starting point. Freud insisted that the narcissistic woman wants "to be loved". "To be loved" means primarily to be chosen and, above all, to be loved "for herself". She wants to be specially valued in a narcissistic way. The study of masculine sexuality accommodates itself to a relatively clear and simple system, but the study of female sexuality encounters problems for which the classical psychoanalytic method proves inadequate. According to psychoanalytical theory, woman's psychosexual development goes through two different stages which are in opposition to each other: the male-clitoral stage and the female-vaginal one.
