ABSTRACT
Freud stressed the relative independence of the development of masculinity and femininity from biological sex. The issue of whether femininity is biologically determined or whether it is constructed independently from biology still polarises perspectives, as it did at the time of the original Freud-Jones debate, as it came to be known. This notion of a non-conflictual 'primary femininity' contrasts with the view of both British and French psychoanalysts for whom there is no area of cognition free of ambiguity, conflict and unconscious phantasy. Some French Lacanian female psychoanalysts, while retaining Lacan's model, assert that there is a feminine sexuality which is beyond the phallic definition. The role of female anatomy and physiology for the development of ego functions and in the elaboration of specific female genital anxieties has been described. The concept of primary femininity put forward by Stoller entails the notion that the girl develops a mental representation of genital femaleness at an early age.
