This article is the first translation into English of a chapter from Helene Deutsch's 'Psychoanalyse der weiblichen Sexualfunktionen' (Psychoanalysis of the Sexual Functions of Women), the first book by an analyst on female psychology. It was published by Freud's press in 1925. The book was itself twice prominently cited by Freud, and it is a classic text in the history of psychoanalytic thoughts about women. The early literature regularly referred to it; yet by now it is possible for writers on psychoanalysis and women wholly to ignore this key piece of work.

The grounds for detaching this one chapter are that its theoretical discussion is illuminated by clinical illustrations; Karen Horney, in her generally appreciative review of the whole book, singled out this chapter for special praise. Twenty years later Helene Deutsch returned, in a different period, to the subject of a woman's climacteric.