Patriarchy and Its Discontents

This anthology of interviews and essays joins luminaries in contemporary psychoanalysis with pioneers of feminism to provide a timely analysis of the crushing effects of patriarchy and the role that psychoanalysis can play in moving us into a future defined by mutuality and respect. Departing from the contemporary psychoanalytic view that the socio-political and intrapsychic are inextricably linked, contributors use psychoanalysis as a tool to demystify and even dismantle patriarchy, while also examining how our theories, practices, and institutions have been implicated in it. The issues under examination here include important and often under-theorized topics such as institutional responses to boundary violations, the search for a black-feminist psychoanalytic theory, patriarchal enactments within the trans community, the persistence of patriarchy within contemporary psychoanalysis, and the impacts of patriarchy on diverse patient populations and ways to address this clinically. This book represents the first anthology comprised of voices from both within and outside the psychoanalytic realm, outlining a contemporary feminist psychoanalysis for both an analytic and non-analytic audience. It is invaluable for both psychoanalysts and for those in gender studies wishing to draw on psychoanalytic thinking.

Jean Petrucelli is a training and supervising analyst, director and co-founder of the Eating Disorders, Compulsions and Addictions Service (EDCAS), a one-year certificate program, and founder and chair of the Conference Advisory Board (CAB) at the William Alanson White Institute. She is a clinical professor of Psychology and clinical consultant for New York University's Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis and adjunct faculty at the Institute of Contemporary Psychotherapy. Dr. Petrucelli is an associate editor for Contemporary Psychoanalysis and the editor of five books, including Body-States: Interpersonal and Relational Perspectives on the Treatment of Eating Disorders, (Routledge, 2015). She specializes in the interpersonal treatment of eating disorders and addictions. Dr. Petrucelli lectures nationally and internationally and is in private practice in New York City. Sarah Schoen is a training and supervising analyst at the William Alanson White Institute, faculty and supervisor at the Eating Disorders, Compulsions and Addictions Program at the William Alanson White Institute, and clinical professor of Psychology at the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. She teaches and writes about the clinical implications of the relational turn, narcissistic states in patient and analyst, complex trauma, and the gendered meanings in transference-countertransference matrices. She is on the editorial board of Contemporary Psychoanalysis and is in private practice in Manhattan's Flatiron District. Naomi Snider is a psychoanalyst in New York City and a graduate of the William Alanson White Institute's Certificate Program in Psychoanalysis. She writes about the intersections of social injustice and psychological struggle and has been invited to speak on these topics at analytic institutes, colleges, and schools. Her published works include Why Does Patriarchy Persist? (2018; co-authored with Carol Gilligan). She has a background in commercial and human rights law and graduated with a Master of Laws from New York University and a Bachelor of Laws from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Introduction Part One: Learning from Activists: Engaging with and Resisting Patriarchal Constraint 1. Interview with Gloria Steinem 2. Interview with Carol Gilligan, Carol Jenkins, Emily Mann, and V, formerly known as Eve Ensler Part Two: On the Couch and in the Institute: How Patriarchy Impacts Psychoanalytic Theory, Practice and Structure 3. Patriarchy in Psychoanalytic Theory and Organizations: The Oedipus Complex as Ideology 4. Outlining the Psychoanalytic "Playbook" toward a Transgressive Collective Response-Ability 5. Confusion of Wills Between the Teacher and the Student: Psychoanalytic Theory and the Persistence of Gendered Abuses of Power in Psychoanalysis 6. On Psychoanalysis's Invention of Patriarchy and the Democratic Significance of Anatomical Difference 7. Maternally Speaking: Mothers, Daughters, and the Talking Cure 8. In Search of our Mother's Couch: Toward a Genealogy of Black Feminist Psychoanalytic Theory 9. Unmasking Psychoanalysis: The Emperor, The Boy, and the Search for New Clothes 10. Psychoanalysis in a Radically Changing World: How Do We Stand? Part Three: Psychoanalysis and Its Liberating Potential: A Clinical Perspective 11. Identity Searches and the Body 12. Patriarchy, Splitting, and Hunger for the Other 13. Working with Patriarchal Countertransference 14. Don't Take Up Space: How the Patriarchy Works to Undermine Trans Communities from Within 15. "Nasty Women" - Mobilizing Female Aggression to Potentiate Women and Silence the Patriarchy Part Four: Conclusion 16. Studies in Patriarchy: Intelligibility, Recognition and Psychoanalysis's Category Trouble