Individual Differences in Melancholy Gender Among Women

Does Ambivalence Matter

Bibliographic Data

ID8333530
AuthorsMeg Jay (University of California, Berkeley; 2003-2004, 3036 Regent Street Berkeley, CA 94705, corresponding author)
Year2007
Volume55
Issue4
Pages1279-1320
Publication date2007-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of the American Psychoanalytic Association (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0003-0651 • E-ISSN: 1941-2460
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/000306510705500410
PMID18246763
OpenAlexW2102358585
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited59

This research offers an empirical investigation inspired by Butler's theory of melancholy gender (1995) and a revision of this theory (Jay 2007a). Psychoanalytic feminist theory is drawn on to suggest that melancholy and gender are more likely to be associated in female development than in male development, and Freud's theory of melancholy (1917) is taken to suggest that ambivalence predicts individual differences in melancholy gender among women. In a longitudinal study of women's adult development, an examination of femininity, depressive symptoms, and ambivalence in attachment was conducted in order to evaluate these claims. Findings show that depressive symptoms and femininity are significantly correlated within the sample, but that individual differences in melancholy gender exist. To understand these differences, an analysis was conducted to determine whether ambivalence in attachment accounts for the relation between depressive symptoms and femininity; complementary analyses examined whether low ambivalence in attachment attenuates, or lessens, the relation between femininity and depressive symptoms. Results from these analyses support the notion that it is not the loss and internalization of the same-sex object choice per se that results in melancholy gender in women, as Butler argues; rather, it is the internalization of a lost, ambivalent same-sex attachment that forges the link between melancholy and gender. Narrative material is presented to personify melancholy and unmelancholy gender

Ambivalence · Art · Developmental psychology · Femininity · Narrative · Psychoanalysis · Psychoanalytic theory · Attachment and Relationship Dynamics · Gender Roles and Identity Studies · Identity, Memory, and Therapy · Psychology