ABSTRACT
Although probably obvious, the landscape of psychoanalysis and gender abounds with conceptual, terminological, technical, and sociopolitical dif-Šculties oŽen characterized by identity politics. Not surprisingly, gender, with its basis in di†erentiation and an accompanying history of genderbased su†ering and oppression, is a mineŠeld where disturbance is to be expected (Benjamin, 1996; Harris, 1991). Yet today, much as when Freud started his psychosexual prospecting, there continues to be something about the terrain that draws us close to the heart of the mind-body-spirit interface. And happily, we now have an assortment of canvassing tools that Freud did not, including advances in early child-parent observation, the inªuence of feminist and postfeminist queer theorizing, the interdisciplinary, cross-culturally informed study of societies and ancient cultures, and the impact of the postmodern outlook to situate us in a position to reconsider our understanding of gender.*
Today we are more likely to understand that gender identity development is not a linear, continuous trajectory, and that a boy’s (and later, a man’s) experience of the ambiguities of his gender are continually being reworked across di†ering developmental junctions. As I clarify in this chapter, gender identity develops from the early, preoedipal identiŠcations with each parent. A healthy sense of masculinity requires incorporating the multitude of these early identiŠcations (as well as subsequent ones) and inevitably demands a psychic achievement in the integrativesynthetic sphere.
