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IN THE PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF THE ORIGINS of femininity1 in females as first laid out by Freud, there is a stage unaccounted for in the chronology of the little girl's development: the first many months of life are not considered. We become aware of this, not by its being clearly stated, but rather more indirectly in writing style — e.g.,
At some time or other the little girl makes the discovery of her organic inferiority
(1931, p. 232, italics added). Skipping over this gap grants the present-day analytic understanding of the psychology of women a substantial logic. But for it we pay too great a price; if we must ignore data in order to retain logic, then our explanation is flawed and should be modifed.
For Freud, the psychology of women opens with a sense of castration, as if what went on before, in the first year or so of life, did not contribute to the development of masculinity and femininity. Femininity, in this theory, is just a defense and shows its makeshift origins in its nature: passivity, masochism, penis envy, renunciation, a weak superego, commitment to