| Several aspects of Freud's theory of female psychology which seem obscure today can be understood quite clearly in the light of turn-of-the-century evolutionary assumptions. The difficulties with Freud's theory of female psychology have been discussed from a number of perspectives; but although his theory depends heavily on phylogenetic inheritance, most criticism to date has been focused at the ontogenetic level. This dissertation is concerned, therefore, with the clarification of his theory from the perspective of evolutionary theory.;As Freud feared it would, reliance on the assumptions of other sciences influenced the development of his theory and his approach to these problems. A discussion of the importance of Charles Darwin and other nineteenth-century evolutionists provides the background for an examination of Freud's theory of female psychology, taken not only from those of his essays explicitly devoted to the topic but also from his work as a whole. In drawing parallels between the evolutionary and the psychoanalytic articulation of the development of the female, as well as between methodologies, Freud's use of Darwinian and other evolutionary theory in the dynamics of his own theory become evident. The effect of ideological and cultural background on the form and content of these two men's thought is discussed.;The ramifications of the argument for a contemporary understanding of the psychoanalytic view of the female are developed in the last chapter where it is found possible, using tools drawn from the sociology of knowledge which have been confronted throughout the thesis, to broadly identify levels of ideological content contained in the theories of Darwin and Freud.;Among the problematic aspects of the theory are: why the female is said to be more "bisexual" than the male; to be inherently more repressed, narcissistic, and passive; and to display less libido. The theoretical problem in each case develops from Freud's assumption that very young children of both sexes were psychologically identical, and his reluctance to attribute to culture a role in directing the child's development toward the male and female norm. |
