THE EMBODIED FEMALE THE EMBODIED FEMALE edited by Alcira Mariam Alizade A Volume in the Psychoanalysis & Women Series for the Committee on Women and Psychoanalysis of the International Psychoanalytical Association KARNAC Fint published in 2002 by Kamac Books Ltd. 118 Finchley Road, NW3 5HT Copyright <Cl 2002 International Psychoanalytical Association Copyright i!:I 2002 Arrang=. ... t, Prelace and Chapter 3 by Alcira Mariam Alizade Chapter 1 <Cl 2002 Marie Langer Chapter 2 <Cl 2002 Jean Coumut Chapter 4 /f:I2002 Jacqueline Schaeffer Chapter 5 «:> 2002 Joan Raphael-Leff Chapter 6 11:>2002 WIle Matthis Chapter 7 11:>2002 Janioe S. Lieberman Chapter 8 11:>2002 Cecilia Sinay Millonschik Chapter 9 <Cl 2002 Helen C. Meyers Chapter 10 11:>2002 Nancy Kulish and Deanna Holtzman Chapter 11 <Cl2002 Beth J. Seelig The rights of all the above persons to be identified as the authors of this work have been asserted in accordance with §§ 77 and 78 of the Copyright Design and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of !his publication may be reproduoed, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitf2rl, in any fOm\ or by any means, el~nic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A C.I.P. for !his book is available from the British Library ISBN: 9781855759527 10987654321 Edited, designed, and produced by 'The Studio Publishing Services Ud, Exeter EX4 8)N www.karnacbooks.com CONTENTS FOREWORD vii CONTRIBUTORS xi CHAPTER ONE Psychoanalysis of a female homosexual Marie Langer 1 CHAPTER TWO The ever lasting orgasm Jean Cournut 15 CHAPTER THREE The fluidity of the female universe and its psychic consequences Alcira Nfariam Alizade 25 CHAPTER FOUR Negotiating the antagonism between feminine and maternal spheres Jacqueline Schaeffer 37 v vi CONTENTS CHAPTER FIVE Eggs between women-emotional aspects of gamete donation in reproductive technology Joan Raphael-Lejf 53 CHAPTER SIX Strangebody Irene Matthis 65 CHAPTER SEVEN The analyst as reluctant spectator: working with women obsessed with body narcissism Janice S. Liebennan 81 CHAPTER EIGHT The female body has its reasons-but its reasons have a female body Cecilia Sinay Millonschik 91 CHAPTER NINE The challenges and options of menopause Helen C. Meyers 99 CHAPTER TEN Baubo: rediscovering woman's pleasures Nancy Kulish and Deanna Holtzman 109 CHAPTER EL EVEN The hidden chamber-a case of fused minor labia Beth J. Seelig 121 REFERENCES 131 FOREWORD The Committee on Women and Psychoanalysis of the International Psychoanalytical Association is both pleased and proud to ina ugura te this series of books, which provide a forum for discussion of issues involving sexuality, sexual identity and gender constructs in a cross-cultural and international context. The remit of the Committee is to investigate sexuality, interactions, and relationships between men and women. With this in mind, The Embodied Female, Studies on Femininity and Masculine Scenarios aim to offer the reader a wide range of topics with their implications for the world of psychoanalysis. The Embodied Female deals mainly with the psychic consequences of women's physical experiences such as menstruation, lactation, maternity and orgasms, Studies on Femininity reviews certain theoretical and clinical con- ceptualizations of femininity, while Masculine Scenarios discusses different issues involving object relations and their vicissitudes as regards the psychic world of men and male sexuality in general. These books are intended to be open-minded and free-ranging in spirit. In putting forward their ideas, the authors hope that they will lead to fresh thinking and new hypotheses that stimulate the cross- cultural interplay of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic ideas. vii viii FOREWORD The contributors were selected on a basis that combined both chance and known professional skill, with the idea of theoretical pluralism uppermost in our minds, even though we realized that this would probably result in controversy. In these volumes, the reader will find not only papers from different essentialist, constructivist and culture-based standpoints, but will also note the existence of theoretical and clinical intersections where psychoanalysis borders on closely-related disciplines such as philosophy, sociology, history, ethology, etc. The biology that Nature bestows on each of us at birth, in its innocence and originality, provides the stage where human scenarios unfold. It is on this basis that the development of somatic, psychic and socio-cultural integration is analyzed on various levels. The body, that strange governor of our fate, gives expression to the voices inhabiting it. The inner discourse is that of our first significant others, with their transgenerational mandates and identificatory patterns. They speak to us through traumatic experiences and sexual feelings. Historically, sexuality as viewed by psychoanalysis is wide- ranging and encompasses heterogeneous forms that involve subjectivity, scenarios recorded in the psychic flesh and inevitable psycho-physical events. In this series, classical areas of psychoanalysis are conjugated with post-modern questions and with new hypotheses to form a kind of heterogeneous, pluralistic spectrum defined to some extent by time and influenced by social factors that participate in the genesis and development of psychodynamics. The controversial concept of gender calls into question our established theories on sexuality and forces us to listen with an open mind to issues involving sexual identity and choice of sexual object. These volumes will enable the reader to venture on a stimulating journey into psychoanalytic terminology, cultural definitions, certainties, doubts and hegemonies of all kinds. They oblige us to think and to think again about the complexity of sexuality in the light of psychoanalysis. Human identity, sexual identity, primary and secondary identification, object choice, narcissism-all of these lie on a continuum with homosexuality, transsexualism, transvest- ism, heterosexuality and asexuality. Maternal and paternal functions, as well as concepts of femininity and masculinity, are outlined anew FOREWORD ix in an interplay of theoretical and clinical networks, with the aim of increasing the efficiency of analytic praxis freed from prejudice and monolithic convention. The hope of the Committee is that these papers will encourage future volumes with the aim of opening up further pathways into psychoanalytic exploration. Akira Mariam Alizade Chairperson, Committee on Women and Psychoanalysis of the International Psychoanalytical Association.