Psychoanalysis and Feminism

Juliet Mitchell's presentation put me in mind of some lines of Yeats's which I often find myself quoting:

As most here will know, the publication of Psychoanalysis and Feminism in 1974 marked a historically significant coming together of a number of forces, economically, politically, and culturally specific and interrelated in extremely complex ways. In this country, the forces arose essentially from the politicization of the younger generation in the sixties during which protests against American imperialism re-awakened hopes of change for all oppressed people and a commitment to try to bring that about - to do something about things.

The publication also stimulated a desire to think about things: it initiated a debate which has been dramatically growing in strength and depth ever since. As Juliet Mitchell says, in important respects the book arose from a lack - an absence in the largely male-dominated discourse of Marxism of an analysis of the internal world as well as of the external. Many of us belonged to Marx/Freud reading groups at the time - grappling with the kinds of issues she describes and moving towards a position that psychoanalysis, far from being the enemy of the woman's movement was, in fact, essential to it.

This position was brilliantly articulated in the pages of Juliet Mitchell's book. The rich harvest of that extraordinarily important statement has been reaped during these 20 years, most significantly by promoting thought in these matters, whether in agreement or in opposition to Juliet Mitchell's way of seeing things - thought which then provoked action.

Politically the situation has, of course, completely changed since then. There has been a collapse of the left as we knew it. Many, I think, have turned to psychoanalysis not only as a refuge for their damaged selves, but also to seek enlightenment about t