ABSTRACT
In this chapter I take a deeper look at the kinds of difficulties which arise when women try to explore their own aggressive energies. As a vehicle for this, I use the story of my own struggles with aggressive energies in this project and how a research methodology developed out of those struggles. Threaded through that story are, however, discussions relating to how fantasies about femininity and female (non)-aggression have been woven into the fabric of Western notions of identity and interiority. What emerges is that the cultural invisibility of women’s aggressive energies is embedded in the foundation of the Western notion of reason (and through that, identity), so that the exploration of women’s aggressive fantasies and energies stirs up associations with madness, and through madness, death. A comment from Isla, one of the women who contributed material to this book, provides a point of departure.
