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Beauty and the Beast: The Father's Unconscious and the Riddle of Femininity
Author(s) -
Wieland Christina
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
british journal of psychotherapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.442
H-Index - 17
eISSN - 1752-0118
pISSN - 0265-9883
DOI - 10.1111/j.1752-0118.1991.tb01170.x
Subject(s) - femininity , daughter , psychology , masculinity , unconscious mind , beauty , girl , identity (music) , psychoanalysis , developmental psychology , aesthetics , art , evolutionary biology , biology
SUMMARY This paper is about the importance of the father‐daughter relationship in the development of femininity. It is the author's opinion that recent accounts of femininity have concentrated, in contrast to Freud, almost exclusively on the mother‐daughter relationship thus ignoring the father and, most importantly, the father's unconscious masculinity and its influence on the development of femininity. The nature and development of masculinity and its relation to femininity are explored and the implications of these for the father‐daughter relationship and for the development of the girl's sexual identity are examined. Phantasies, fears and anxieties about both masculinity and femininity, the collusion that develops between father and daughter, and the possible solutions and attempts at compromise that the girl develops are explored.