ABSTRACT
In a much-cited experiment begun in 1938, German-Canadian psychoanalyst Erik Erikson observed that boys and girls come to a different conclusion if they are given the same wooden blocks and the same task to perform, namely ‘to build an exciting scene from an imagined film’. In the group of children, which Erikson observed over quite a long period of time, the girls on average had a tendency to build round, introverted spaces which they filled with dolls and furniture, while the boys all built exterior spaces with high towers (see Figure 3.1). 1 He further observed that the boys also constructed traffic scenes (see Figure 3.2), with a policeman who created order, or lively scenes with animals, cowboys and indians, racing cars, and so on. The girls, on the other hand, created tranquil, static and peaceful scenes with domestic subjects and decorated entrance gates (see Figure 3.3). The different designs were interpreted by Erikson in relation to the sexual characteristics of the two groups. Feminist author Kate Millett has commented on Erikson’s experiment: Erik H. Erikson, boys' scene: exterior spaces and high towers https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203522554/568ee5e6-ff35-4f31-b79c-085dd84bff7d/content/fig3_1_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> Erik H. Erikson, boys' scene: traffic scene https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203522554/568ee5e6-ff35-4f31-b79c-085dd84bff7d/content/fig3_2_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> Erik H. Erikson, girls' scene: interior spaces filled with dolls https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203522554/568ee5e6-ff35-4f31-b79c-085dd84bff7d/content/fig3_3_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>
The pacific, rather than merely passive character which Erikson ascribes to the girl’s play is of course most depressing in view of the fact it lacks all possibility of social implementation until the female sphere becomes not the doll’s house inner space Erikson endorses, but the world. What is perhaps most discouraging of all is not even the masculine fixation on violence but the futility of the girls’ sedentary dream, even in its barrenness, for they sit awaiting the ‘intrusion of men and animals’ (a remarkable combination) and doing nothing at all – not even the ‘nurturance’ expected of them. 2
