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Most chapters in this book are revisions of earlier papers published or presented by Maria Bergmann over the past 20 years, still, the material has a cohesiveness and contemporaneousness about it that makes it a rewarding read
Almost all the clinical material recounted here is from Bergmann's analyses of women She tells us, in her introduction, of her”growing awareness of female development as different in many respects from Freud's original assumptions regarding this‘dark continent’” She also comments on the significant changes in women's roles and self-awareness over the past century In part 1, “Women's Struggle to Experience Love, Sexuality, and Maternity,” she describes her clinical experience with women who had postponed marriage and motherhood in favour of professional opportunities and sexual freedom
Bergmann's work with children of Holocaust survivors sensitized her to the effects of disturbed parent-child relationships and role reversal in myriad family constellations She describes role reversal as not just a defence mechanism but an early defensive characterological stance “It starts as a survival mechanism vis-à-vis the mother, but develops into traits within the character structure Narcissistic rage is defended against by a masochistic and self-deprecating self-image” (31) And with attention to clinical detail, Bergmann demonstrates that this character formation reappears in the transference neurosis She describes how the female patient in the transference relationship with her female analyst will alternately idealize and devalue her as she searches for the mother she never had in childhood While reading her clinical descriptions, one is reminded of—and indeed Bergmann draws attention to—the similarity with André Green's patients described in The Dead Mother
In part 2, chapter 4, Bergmann offers a review of female sexuality and femininity from a traditional perspective This section constitutes an excellent review of the evolution of psychoanalytic ideas wit