ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the ways in which symbolism is incorporated into our knowledge and experience of love and sex, and the role of the culture in shaping symbols of love and sex. What is sometimes omitted in discussions of symbolism is its communicative component, the fact that symbolization may be utilized in the form of speech to connect with someone else or to test that person's limits by speaking symbolically on behalf of a particular goal. That is, sexual symbolism implicates not only sexual organs and sexual acts, but also the way in which sex and gender are conceptualized in a specific historical epoch. While Ethel is primarily addressing symbolization in women, the body ego clearly plays the same role in both sexes. Though it was not Loewald's emphasis, Loewald's formulation can be read as going beyond sexuality per se; he describes a kind of symbolization allowing women to own their individuality; here symbolization transcends sexuality to establish autonomy.
