Nancy J Chodorow
Biographic Data
| ID | 110203 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Nancy J Chodorow |
| GIVEN NAMES | Nancy J |
| FAMILY NAME | Chodorow |
| SIGNATURE | CHODOROW N J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of California, Santa Cruz |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 60 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 114 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 60 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1976 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Freud in His Psychosocial Generation
"'Civilized' Sexual Morality and Modern Nervous Illness," "Totem and Taboo," "Thoughts for the Times on War and Death," "Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego," "The Future of an Illusion," "Civilization and its Discontents"-from his earliest cases to the end of his life, Freud reached from psyche to society. He is joined in these dual interests by the generation of founding sociologists, Emile Durkheim, Georg Simmel, Max Weber, and W. E. …
In Pursuit of Racial Equality in American Psychoanalysis
The Social Voices of Psychoanalysis
The papers collected in this series were originally presented at the 83rd Oral History Workshop during the American Psychoanalytic Association’s meetings in February of 2021. The topic of the workshop, “The Social Voices of Psychoanalysts: The 1960s and 1970s”, was chosen because over the last several years, members of the psychoanalytic community had been debating the question of the role of psychoanalysts in a deeply divided political, social a…
The Psychoanalytic Ear and the Sociological Eye
In The Psychoanalytic Ear and the Sociological Eye: Toward an American Independent Tradition, Nancy J. Chodorow brings together her two professional identities, psychoanalyst and sociologist, as she also brings together and moves beyond two traditions within American psychoanalysis, naming for the first time an American independent tradition. The book's chapters move inward, toward fine-tuned discussions of the theory and epistemology of the Amer…
The Psychoanalytic Ear and the Sociological Eye
At the same time, she rues the lack of attention within the social sciences to the serious study of individuals and individuality and advocates for a field of individuology in the university
Feeling gender
The Power of Feelings
In the middle of the twentieth century, leading cultural critics and visionaries Erik Erikson, Lionel Trilling, Herbert Marcuse, and many others turned to psychoanalysis as a measure of human personal and cultural fulfillment. Now, as we enter a new millennium, Nancy J. Chodorow, well known as a feminist theorist and psychoanalyst, takes her place in this line of eminent thinkers and revitalizes their project. Psychoanalysis, she claims, offers i…
How Psychoanalysis Lost the Birthing Body
Klein, Melanie (1882–1960)
From the Glory of Hera to the Wrath of Achilles
Second-wave psychoanalytic feminism understood masculinity through theories that converge in seeing masculinity in mother-son terms. The dread of women, primary femininity, disidentification, father absence, and society without the father all portray an overpowering mother. Men’s reaction is to define masculinity as the not-feminine and as superior, to deny and deprecate femininity in themselves and in women. After Slater, I call these dynamics t…
Why Is It Easy to Be a Psychoanalyst and a Feminist, But Not a Psychoanalyst and a Social Scientist? Reflections of a Psychoanalytic Hybrid
Why Is It Easy to Be a Psychoanalyst and a Feminist, But not a Psychoanalyst and a Social Scientist? Reflections of a Psychoanalytic Hybrid
I was asked to make these reflections on my dual identity and location as academic and psychoanalyst personal and informal, and so they are. I see them, in some ways, as both a continuation of and a contrast to our last meeting: my thinking was sparked by Paul Schwaber’s presentation, “The Pleasures of Mind,” in which Schwaber, a psychoanalyst and humanities professor, described the happy combination he has been able to make of psychoanalysis and…
Analytic Listening and the Five Senses
This introductory essay, the three papers that follow—by Jonathan Palmer, Forrest Hamer, and Peter Goldberg—and the commentary by Susan Yamaguchi are products of the panel “Analytic Listening and the Five Senses,” presented at the American Psychoanalytic Association meeting in San Francisco, June 11, 2011
E. Victor Wolfenstein, 1940–2010
Victor Wolfenstein, Professor of Political Science at UCLA and psychoanalyst, was a consulting editor of this journal from its inception, but he was probably not personally, or perhaps even profess
Beyond the Dyad
A Different Universe
Hans Loewald's classic paper, "On the Therapeutic Action of Psychoanalysis" (1960), is one of our field's most comprehensive and elegant accounts of the analytic attitude and stance that are required to enable a psychoanalytic process leading to psychic change, as well as a fine-tuned and original conceptualization of that change. The author shows how Loewald, while not including technical or interpretive recommendations or claiming a new metapsy…
Introduction
The Healer’s Bent
(2007). The Healer’s Bent: Solitude and Dialogue in the Clinical Encounter, BY JAMES T. MC LAUGHLIN. The Psychoanalytic Quarterly: Vol. 76, No. 2, pp. 617-629
Reflections on Loewald’s “Internalization, Separation, Mourning, and The Superego”
(2007). Reflections on Loewald’s “Internalization, Separation, Mourning, and The Superego”. The Psychoanalytic Quarterly: Vol. 76, No. 4, pp. 1135-1151
Gender On the Modern-Postmodern and Classical-Relational Divide
This essay considers the historical periodization and epistemology of psychoanalytic thinking about gender. Overlapping historically with feminism itself, psychoanalytic thinking about gender has two periods of efflorescence, the 1920s and 1930s, and the contemporary period beginning in the 1970s. Two divides have characterized our gender thinking, the modern-postmodern and the classical-relational. From the early theorizing of the 1920s and 1930…
The psychoanalytic vision of Hans Loewald
Hans Loewald is a comprehensive and original theorist on a par with any major post-Freudian thinker, yet neither his ideas nor his person have become the basis for a Loewaldian school or approach, and he is not as well known as other innovators of comparable quality. In this paper the author attempts to characterize the scope and depth of Loewald's theory--his vision of the psyche and psychic life, or metapsychology, his characterization of the p…
Too Late”
This paper explores a particular constellation of fantasies and defenses that in some women leads to the delay of childbearing. Destructive wishes towards the woman's own womb and her mother's lead to behaviors that sabotage fertility and pregnancy. These wishes and behaviors meet up with an unconscious belief in and commitment to time standing still, and with cultural tropes and trends that obscure intrapsychic conflicts and denials about mother…
From Behind the Couch
Research Article| August 01 2003 FROM BEHIND THE COUCH: Uncertainty and Indeterminacy in Psychoanalytic Theory and Practice Nancy J. Chodorow Nancy J. Chodorow Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Common Knowledge (2003) 9 (3): 463–487. https://doi.org/10.1215/0961754X-9-3-463 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Twitter Permissions Search Site Citation Nancy J. Chodorow; FROM BEHIND THE COUCH: Uncertainty and Indeterminacy in Ps…
Das Erbe der Mütter
Das Erbe der Mütter
Gender as a Personal and Cultural Construction
The psychoanalytic vision of Hans Loewald
Hans Loewald is a comprehensive and original theorist on a par with any major post-Freudian thinker, yet neither his ideas nor his person have become the basis for a Loewaldian school or approach, and he is not as well known as other innovators of comparable quality. In this paper the author attempts to characterize the scope and depth of Loewald's theory--his vision of the psyche and psychic life, or metapsychology, his characterization of the p…
Mothering, Object-Relations, and the Female Oedipal Configuration
Many feminists have come to recognize that psychoanalysis, as a theory of the social production of gender and sexuality, must be a central component of feminist understanding.1 My own work within this tradition argued for the importance of the fact that women, and not men, are primary caretakers of children.2 I have suggested that the mother-daughter relationship contributes in fundamental ways to the character of the feminine psyche, as well as …
"On "The Reproduction of Mothering
Beyond the Dyad
Too Late”
This paper explores a particular constellation of fantasies and defenses that in some women leads to the delay of childbearing. Destructive wishes towards the woman's own womb and her mother's lead to behaviors that sabotage fertility and pregnancy. These wishes and behaviors meet up with an unconscious belief in and commitment to time standing still, and with cultural tropes and trends that obscure intrapsychic conflicts and denials about mother…
Oedipal Asymmetries and Heterosexual Knots
One of our most common everyday perceptions is that heterosexual couple relationships are difficult. This article argues that these difficulties are not accidental but systematically created as part of the reproduction of the family. The psychoanalytic account of feminine and masculine oedipal development shows that a family structure in which women mother produces women and men with asymmetrical relational needs and wants. These lead people to f…
From Behind the Couch
Research Article| August 01 2003 FROM BEHIND THE COUCH: Uncertainty and Indeterminacy in Psychoanalytic Theory and Practice Nancy J. Chodorow Nancy J. Chodorow Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Common Knowledge (2003) 9 (3): 463–487. https://doi.org/10.1215/0961754X-9-3-463 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Twitter Permissions Search Site Citation Nancy J. Chodorow; FROM BEHIND THE COUCH: Uncertainty and Indeterminacy in Ps…
A Different Universe
Hans Loewald's classic paper, "On the Therapeutic Action of Psychoanalysis" (1960), is one of our field's most comprehensive and elegant accounts of the analytic attitude and stance that are required to enable a psychoanalytic process leading to psychic change, as well as a fine-tuned and original conceptualization of that change. The author shows how Loewald, while not including technical or interpretive recommendations or claiming a new metapsy…
Reflections on Loewald’s “Internalization, Separation, Mourning, and The Superego”
(2007). Reflections on Loewald’s “Internalization, Separation, Mourning, and The Superego”. The Psychoanalytic Quarterly: Vol. 76, No. 4, pp. 1135-1151
Extract from The Reproduction of Mothering
Toward a New Psychology of Women
In this revised second edition, Dr Jean Baker Miller expands on her reflections on women and their future in the world. In particular, she supplies a commentary on the developments and changes experienced by women in recent years. At the centre of her argument is the understanding that the qualities women possess in abundance - tenderness, co-operativeness, ability to nurture - have been consistently devalued by both women and men. In fact, these…
In Pursuit of Racial Equality in American Psychoanalysis
From the Glory of Hera to the Wrath of Achilles
Second-wave psychoanalytic feminism understood masculinity through theories that converge in seeing masculinity in mother-son terms. The dread of women, primary femininity, disidentification, father absence, and society without the father all portray an overpowering mother. Men’s reaction is to define masculinity as the not-feminine and as superior, to deny and deprecate femininity in themselves and in women. After Slater, I call these dynamics t…
Analytic Listening and the Five Senses
This introductory essay, the three papers that follow—by Jonathan Palmer, Forrest Hamer, and Peter Goldberg—and the commentary by Susan Yamaguchi are products of the panel “Analytic Listening and the Five Senses,” presented at the American Psychoanalytic Association meeting in San Francisco, June 11, 2011
Introduction
Gender On the Modern-Postmodern and Classical-Relational Divide
This essay considers the historical periodization and epistemology of psychoanalytic thinking about gender. Overlapping historically with feminism itself, psychoanalytic thinking about gender has two periods of efflorescence, the 1920s and 1930s, and the contemporary period beginning in the 1970s. Two divides have characterized our gender thinking, the modern-postmodern and the classical-relational. From the early theorizing of the 1920s and 1930…
Response and Afterword
Reflections on the Authority of the Past in Psychoanalytic Thinking
The Healer’s Bent
(2007). The Healer’s Bent: Solitude and Dialogue in the Clinical Encounter, BY JAMES T. MC LAUGHLIN. The Psychoanalytic Quarterly: Vol. 76, No. 2, pp. 617-629
The Cycle Completed
Born into a World at War
American Imago - Volume 59, Number 3, Fall 2002
Psychoanalysis and Feminism
We would like to respond to Richard Wollheim’s review (nlr 93) of Juliet Mitchell’s Psychoanalysis and Feminism. The Left and the women’s movement traditionally reject Freud as a biological determinist. Mitchell’s book sought to redeem him by presenting a social and cultural reading of psychoanalytic theory. The
Oedipal Asymmetries and Heterosexual Knots
One of our most common everyday perceptions is that heterosexual couple relationships are difficult. This article argues that these difficulties are not accidental but systematically created as part of the reproduction of the family. The psychoanalytic account of feminine and masculine oedipal development shows that a family structure in which women mother produces women and men with asymmetrical relational needs and wants. These lead people to f…
Growing up Female. By Julia Reichart and James Klein
Sugar and Spice. By Eric Breitbart, Vicki Breitbart , and Alan Jacobs
Toward a New Psychology of Women
In this revised second edition, Dr Jean Baker Miller expands on her reflections on women and their future in the world. In particular, she supplies a commentary on the developments and changes experienced by women in recent years. At the centre of her argument is the understanding that the qualities women possess in abundance - tenderness, co-operativeness, ability to nurture - have been consistently devalued by both women and men. In fact, these…
The Reproduction of Mothering
Mothering, Object-Relations, and the Female Oedipal Configuration
Many feminists have come to recognize that psychoanalysis, as a theory of the social production of gender and sexuality, must be a central component of feminist understanding.1 My own work within this tradition argued for the importance of the fact that women, and not men, are primary caretakers of children.2 I have suggested that the mother-daughter relationship contributes in fundamental ways to the character of the feminine psyche, as well as …
Women and Men
Why Do Women Do the Mothering
The Reproduction of Mothering
When this best-seller was published, it put the mother-daughter relationship and female psychology on the map. The Reproduction of Mothering was chosen by Contemporary Sociology as one of the ten most influential books of the past twenty-five years. With a new preface by the author, this updated edition is testament to the formative effect that Nancy Chodorow's work continues to exert on psychoanalysis, social science, and the humanities
Production and Reproduction
"On "The Reproduction of Mothering
Excavating "Those Dim Minoan Regions"
Feminism and psychoanalytic theory
Chodorow
Oedipus Texts
Feminism and Psychoanalytic Theory
Family Structure and Feminine Personality
This chapter suggests that a crucial differentiating experience in male and female development arises out of the fact that women, universally, are largely responsible for early child care and for later female socialization. It focuses on the ongoing interpersonal relationships in which these various behaviors are given meaning. The chapter proposes a model to account for the reproduction within each generation of certain general and nearly univer…
Becoming a Feminist Foremother
No abstract available for this article
Femininities, Masculinities, Sexualities
Gender as a Personal and Cultural Construction
The Gendering of Social Theory
Throughout Your Generations Forever
This feminist study of relations between sacrifice, gender, and social organization reveals sacrifice as a remedy for having been born of woman, and hence uniquely suited to establishing certain and enduring paternity. Drawing on examples of ancient and modern societies, Nancy Jay synthesises sociology of religion, ethnography, biblical scholarship, church history, and classics to argue that sacrifice legitimates and maintains patriarchal structu…
Reflections on the Authority of the Past in Psychoanalytic Thinking
Feminism and Psychoanalytic Theory
In the early period of the contemporary feminist movement, feminists searched for a grand theory. This single cause, or dominant factor, theory would e1.l)lain a se1.7.lal inequality, hierarchy, and domination that were omnipresent and that defined and circumscribed merely the experience and organization of gender and senility. For some theorists, gender oppression inhered in capitalist relations of work and exploitation, in the state or the fami…
Psychology (44 works) · Sociology (40 works) · Psychoanalysis (36 works) · Psychoanalytic theory (22 works) · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications (21 works) · Gender Studies (16 works) · Philosophy (12 works) · Social Psychology (11 works) · Academic and Historical Perspectives in Psychology (10 works) · Computer Science (8 works)