ABSTRACT
Originally presented before the Eighth International Psycho-Analytical Congress held in Salzburg in April 1924, ‘The Psychology of Women in Relation to the Functions of Reproduction’ was published in English in 1925.
In this paper Deutsch endorses and expands Freud’s views about sexual development in relation to erogenous zones. What she shows here is how one becomes a woman, i.e., how the switch in valuation of the female genital occurs and how this event relates to the function of reproduction; and it emerges that for Deutsch, ‘woman’ means the ‘phallic mother’.
The starting point of the paper is that the development of the infantile libido to the normal heterosexual object choice is more difficult in women: the little girl has to give up a masculinity bound up with the clitoris and, in the difficult transition from the phallic phase (whose importance is emphasized) to the vaginal phase, she has to discover a new organ ‘in her own person’ through a passive and masochistic submission to the penis. The truly feminine attitude to the vagina finds its origins in the oral activity of the child at the breast. This, Deutsch posits, reflects the whole psychological difference displayed by the mature woman in her relations with the object-world, since the psychic significance of coitus lies in the repetition and mastery of the trauma of a symbolic form of castration; incorporating the penis repeats the trauma of weaning.
According to Deutsch, phallic narcissism centred on the clitoris gives way to a vaginal phase whereby the vagina becomes the maternal receptacle: the vagina, which represents the child, becomes the woman’s ‘ego in miniature.’ Thus, as the object of maternal libido, the partner becomes the child; and in coitus the penis takes on the role of the breast, and the vagina the passive role of the sucking mouth.
The libidinal investment of the vagina derives from the entire body, on one hand, and specifically from the clitoris on the other. The greater importance of the investment of the whole body in women also explains the tendency for women to retain a relatively greater degree of polymorphous perversity.
Finally, one should note Deutsch’s claim that for woman the sexual act is divided into two phases: orgasm and labour. Female orgasm is seen as a ‘missed labour’ and labour as an ‘orgy of masochistic pleasure’ that duplicates male ejaculation.
