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Schafer believes that there can be no value-free exploration or exposition of psychoanalysis. He begins with a spirited defence of Hartmann, whose biological concept of adaptation has been misinterpreted as advocating social conformity when adaptation also includes acting upon the environment and changing environments. Such a viewpoint legitimizes the direct observation of children and Schafer sees in it a precursor of current ideas on dialogue and intersubjectivity in psychoanalysis
Schafer essentially endorses postmodern discourse on gender as developed by feminist scholars. Gender should not be approached as a fact of nature but as a construction He criticizes the genital reproductive focus as “reinforcing the phallocentric values of our society—only males can and should rule the world” (p 37). He derives the notion that males should rule the world from the view that “being female absolutely requires heterosexuality and childbearing,” a derivation I do not find particularly convincing. Nor is it clear whoever said that being female absolutely requires heterosexuality and childbearing.
Having established his feminist credentials, Schafer takes issue with women who want to be treated only by female analysts. His argument is that the female analyst was probably analysed by a male, so that either we have to accept that males are capable of analysing females or conclude that the female analyst could not have been properly analysed.