The Psychology of Women: A Psychoanalytic Interpretation

Those who are familiar with the writings of Helene Deutsch have come to expect from her publications sound, carefully studied and clinically illustrated scientific observations. The present volume lives up to such expectations in every particular. The author states in the preface that "the purpose of this book is to explain the normal conflicts. We know that the degree of psychic health is not determined by the absence of conflicts but by the adequacy of the methods used to solve and master them." Exhaustive case material is presented to illustrate the validity of conclusions reached from psychoanalytic investigation into problems of feminine development. In the present work, which is the first of two volumes, the author discusses the individual development and personality of women. This volume contains ten chapters, on prepuberty, early puberty, puberty and adolescence, menstruation, eroticism, the feminine woman, feminine passivity, feminine masochism, the "active" woman, the masculinity