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Ruth Fischer introduced the panel, noting that in recent years many of our ideas about female development have been modified, or even drastically altered. The concept of primary femaleness has supplanted the long held conviction that the girl's sense of herself as female begins with an awareness of genital anatomic difference. The female triangulation conflict has been seriously reconsidered. We have a new appreciation of the impact of the girl's body on the organization of her development and have begun to delineate the differences in male and female development. As we listen to patients, it is with a new appreciation of countertransference, the patient's point of view, and intersubjectivity.
Amid this change, our ideas about the mother-daughter relationship have remained intact: a tenacious bond that eventually needs to be broken for development to progress. We have traditionally postulated a relatedness/autonomy dichotomy, with the girl oscillating between happy union with her mother and her own self-expression, unable to express independent initiative and mature genital sexuality without breaking the bond.
Today, however, we realize that development is not purely linear and internally driven; we acknowledge relational components and anticipate evolution over time. The goal is no longer the severing of the tie to mother (in order to attain separation, autonomy, and mature sexuality), but an evolving transformation of the relationship (to allow the time needed for integration and identification). Disengagement is replaced by the consolidation of new internalizations, resulting in new levels of organization and enrichment, not disruption or abandonment. It is the lack of the modification of this bond that can lead to problems. This is a radical innovation in our conceptualization of female psychology.