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In The Psychogenesis of a Case of Homosexuality in a Woman, Freud discusses a case of a young woman brought to him by her parents for treatment as a homosexual. Although he states that Psychoanalysis is not truly a tool for curing homosexuality, but one to help those with inner conflict in one particular area or another, he attempts to study the girl to see if Psychoanalysis could be of any help to her. Once he realized that the girl had a deep rooted bitterness towards men, he called off his study of her and told her parents that if they were to seek more psychoanalysis for her it should be sought from a woman. Prior to this discovery he found a few things of interest that may have attributed to her choice of sexual object. One of the first things Freud thought about was whether the patient was a homosexual from birth or whether she changed her object choice later in life. At the time it was thought that homosexuals had characteristics (physical a psychical) of the opposite sex.
Though there were a few of these found in the girl, they were not strong enough to count for much. She was tall like her father and her features were sharper rather than soft and feminine, but she was still a beautiful and well developed girl. As far as psychical characteristics that were more masculine, he listed sharp comprehension, and objectivity in that her passion did not have complete control over her. Still there were women at the time who had traits such as these and were not homosexual. The characteristic the girl displayed that was the most manly, however, was the way she acted and thought in regards to the Lady she was in love with. The girl preferred to think of herself as the lover, not the beloved.
Simply being allowed to accompany the lady and to kiss her on the hand when they parted made her happy. She loved hearing the lady get complemented on her beauty, but didnt care at all when she herself was complimented in that way. Freud compared her actions to those of the first passionate adoration of a youth for a celebrated actress whom he regards as far above him (23). All this aside, Freud decides that this particular patient was not a homosexual at birth, but was rather a case of late acquired inversion (28). In fact towards the end of the study his findings seem to imply that she may not in fact be a homosexual by nature, but as a matter of manipulation of those around her. She went through the normal Oedipus stages as a child, and later replaced her father with one of her slightly older brothers.
When she was about five years old she and her brother compared genitalia and it had long lasting impressions on her. A short time later her mother gave birth to another boy, and this birth seemed to have little or no effect on her. During puberty she learned the basics of sex in school and it left her both feeling fascinated and feeling frightened distaste. This was not out of the ordinary. Then when she was thirteen or fourteen she showed rather strong feelings for a small boy around the age of three.
It seemed that she was feeling strong motherly instincts and desired to be a mother herself. She soon moved on from the child to more mature, but still young women, most of whom were already mothers. It seemed that she was looking for a mother figure to replace hers. At this point in her life her libido was focused on motherhood, and not really the women themselves. Then her mother gave birth to a third son, and things changed drastically.
Her libido switched from motherhood to the women themselves. Though the lady that she had turned her affections to when she was brought to Freud was not a mother, all of the women directly proceeding her brothers birth were actual mothers between the ages of thirty and thirty-five. A short while after, the condition for her love ceased to be motherhood and was replaced by a condition that she cared more about and that was incompatible with motherhood. One of the things that helped her love for this lady grow was the fact that she reminded the girl of her older brother.
This combination of the masculine with the feminine ideal combined also her fulfillment of both homosexual and heterosexuality. Freud found that all of this led to the conclusion that this switch to homosexuality stemmed mostly from her mother and her father. Her mother saw that her daughter was developing into a beautiful and younger competitor and favored her sons over her daughter. She kept her daughters independence limited as much as possible, and paid close attention to her daughters relationship with her husband. Meanwhile the girl was feeling a resurgence of the female Oedipus complex, and not only wanted a male child, but one of her father and in his image.
At the height of this a male child was born to her father, but not from her: from her mother. Feeling spurned and bitter she turned her back on her father and his sex all together. Freud compared this to the common action of men who have been hurt badly for the first time by the women they love, resulting in their later misogynistic tendencies. All of this could have many different results for the girl, but the most extreme manifested: She changed into a man and took her mother in place of her father as her love object. This also helped her relationship with her mom since they were no longer in direct competition. It also had the adverse, though no less desired effect on her father: he despised her newfound object choice and this seemed a suitable revenge for his giving her mother a man-child instead of herself.
She kept things from her father but let slip only enough to enrage him all the more. This was why she would walk with the lady near his place of business at times of the day he was likely to be walking by. Freud seemed to think that the parents unconsciously knew of their daughters psychological games. Her mother appreciated the new lack of competition, and her father was enraged as if he knew she was doing this out of revenge. While the girl was herself modest and did not partake in sexual activities, her object choice was women who were the complete opposite. She had plenty of chances to physically be with girls of her own age and closer to her own nature, but she rejected them time after time.
The new condition of her love was that the women had to be coquettes. The more she learned of her ladies exploits with men which earned her a living, the more compassion she felt, and the stronger her urge to try to save them was. The explanation she gave for her suicide attempt was plausible, and no doubt made up a portion of her motives, but Freud dug deeper into the plausible reasons and found that there was much more to it. She said that she tried to kill herself because upon learning of the girls fathers disapproval, the lady (who already acted coldly towards the girl) had said that she didnt want to see her again. Freud added two more motives: that of (self) punishment-fulfillment, and wish fulfillment. As a wish-fulfillment she was reacting to her wish to fall by fault of her father.
Originally this was to be done by impregnation, but now it was through suicide due to his disapproval and the subsequent loss of the lady. The ladys agreeing with her father backed up Freud's deeper interpretation of the situation. The girl had developed an unconscious death wish towards one or both of her parents, and like many suicidal people had turned this death wish inward. This was the second part of his theory: the (self) punishment-fulfillment. Though many in the class rejected most of Freud's theories in this case-study, upon closer analysis of it I found myself agreeing with almost everything he said.
I think he hit the nail on the head for the most part. His theories were not only logical, but highly likely. Of course this is only after one peels away the layers of the circumstances of that time period. Many of the things people reject today about Freud were just how people thought back then.
While now we usually reject the idea of physical differences between gay and straight peoples bodies, in Freud's time it was thought of as fact. Men and women were viewed differently then, and though Freud seemed to want to not be horribly sexist, many of the views he had ended up being sexist by modern standards. Perhaps it was not that he didnt believe what he was saying, it was that even the father of psychoanalysis couldnt escape the prevailing thoughts and norms held by his society. I thought that the fact that he resigned from the study (something that was criticized by those who spoke in the class) was actually the only logical step for him to take. He suggested that if the girls parents wanted to continue this treatment it should be from a female psychoanalysis. He was correct in this conclusion because by then it was painfully obvious that the girl would not open up to a male nearly as much as she would to a female.
Freud was making progress in his diagnosis, but not in actually treating the girl (he knew the chances of that were slim from the beginning), which is what her parents had come to him for. Of course her parents (or at least her father) would most likely think that this was a bad idea. Its likely (especially knowing what we know about psychology today) that the girl would have turned her affections on the woman analyzing her. The Oedipus complex part of Freud's theories were quite convincing to me as well. It makes sense of a reaction that is otherwise sort of strange. The girl had been there for the birth of one of her brothers and it had not effected her.
Yet when her second brother was born she completely switched her object choice. This could have been a coincidence, but I am of the school that says there are no coincidences. All things have reason behind them, somewhere. Though Freud had issues with women which shaped his views on cases such as this one somewhat differently, he remained rather objective throughout. His reasoning behind the events that brought the girl to him made sound, logical sense.
Even his reason for dumping this case and suggesting they take it up with a different psychoanalysis made a lot of sense. It is definitely more logical than pushing ahead against and almost un-budge-able brick wall build up of bitterness and resentment of men. All in all I was pretty impressed by a man who many bad mouth today.
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