Heller, Serena;
(2022)
How can Psychoanalysis understand Gender Identity?
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
My thesis asks how psychoanalysis can understand gender identity; I consider this socially, culturally, and psychoanalytically, exploring the conscious and unconscious aspects of the motivation or drive to realign gender. I consider how early awareness of difference between the sexes and contrast between phantasy and reality can trigger depression, denial and conflict. When this is unmanageable it can instigate a protest, and a schism between body and mind. I have developed theoretical ideas, conducted Psychoanalytic Research Interviews to bring in lived experience, and formulated hypotheses that I discuss as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist and as a researcher. My theory chapters work through central concepts of gender and sexual identity, underpinned by Freud’s ideas, British Object Relations, the American Relational School of Psychoanalysis, Second Wave Feminist clinical and theoretical contributions including Queer theory and aspects of Lacan and Laplanche. My methodology provides a rationale for using Psychoanalytic Research Interviews specifically for this thesis, and also in the broader debate about psychoanalytic research. In my findings and discussion chapter I introduce hypotheses and interpret the interviews in relation to the theory chapters. My ideas develop from a description and exploration of sex, sexuality and gender to more distinctive propositions about the reversal of temporality into ‘I am therefore I was’ and unconscious matricidal wishes that might propel the drive to undo femaleness and femininity. Early development, Oedipal conflict, puberty, matricidal wishes, manifestations of masculinity, concreteness, fluidity, temporality and representation inform my investigation into sexual and gender identity and identification. The proliferation of young women who wish to be, or feel themselves already to be male has been seen by some as a psychic epidemic1 ; this might include the flight from womanhood and a move away from female homosexuality. By analysing the ways in which sexuality, identity, subjectivity and co-morbidity contribute to this phenomenon, I address how psychoanalysis as a discipline can better understand gender identity.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | How can Psychoanalysis understand Gender Identity? |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2022. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10150880 |
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