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FREUD ON GIRLS: ‘They go through an early age in which they envy their brothers their signs of masculinity and feel at a disadvantage and humiliated because of the lack of it…’

FREUD ON WOMEN: ‘At one time (in a matriarchal society) the woman may have bee the dominant partner. In this way, like the defeated deities, she acquired demonic properties…’

AND ON HIMSELF: ‘My mother was nowhere to be found; I was crying in despair. My brother Philip…unlocked a wardrobe for me, and when I did not find my mother within it either, I cried even more until, slender and beautiful, she came through the door. What can this mean?’

This collection contains Freud’s most significant statements on women, taken form letters as well as published work, presenting a clear, accessible view of the progress of his thought and his own struggle for understanding and coherence. Elisabeth Young-Bruehl untangles the arguments, relating Freud’s ideas on women and on bisexuality to his clinical practice and broader theory, while the annotated bibliography traces the later disputes.