Aggression and Women

Ruth Fischer, who chaired the panel, began by reviewing recent milestones in psychoanalytic thinking about female development. Robert Stoller's concept of primary femininity, she said, sharpened the intuitive sense held by many analysts that the experience of femaleness is specif ic and essential, that it is the absence or otherness of maleness but has its own def inition. Since Stoller began his work, a substantial body of literature has elaborated and advanced his ideas.

Very little, however, has been written about the place of aggression in a woman's experience. The concept of aggression, ungendered, presents difficulties. On the one hand, aggression in its more “positive” template appears as ambition, curiosity, and assertiveness. On the other hand, aggression is often synonymous with hostility or violence. In the psychoanalytic literature, aggression is considered instinctual, but questions arise about the inf luence of “nurture” and culture on the expression that aggression takes. These questions encompass the role of gender in the experience and expression of aggression. First arises the basic question of whether there are differences for men and women in aggression. If so, what accounts for these? Are such differences determined biologically, psychologically, or culturally?

It is common to hear that women shrink from aggressive experiences, competitiveness, and assertiveness. In her studies, Carol Gilligan reports that the self-esteem and assertiveness of girls diminish as they proceed through adolescence. These troubling tendencies alert us to the need to understand the inhibition of aggression in women. It is common also to hear about women whose control over aggressive impulses is sorely def icient. The patients we diagnose as borderline are largely women who exhibit problems with aggression. Clearly, neither inhibition nor poor impulse control of aggression is limited to