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This is an unusually timely and most relevant book; it comes at a peak of renewed interest in the problems of women and their relationships to society, to men, to one another, and to themselves. Freud's writings were so influenced by the patriarchal Victorian culture in which he wrote, that his theories, especially about women, seem dated and of limited use today. His work only served to reinforce their domestic servitude, their role as second-class citizens, lacking a penis as well as a capacity for valid intellectual achievement, too narcissistic and weak in ego-structure to contribute much to society except children and wifely service. Fifty years ago, psychoanalytic writers, beginning with Karen Homey and Ernest Jones, began to amend and update these early misconceptions; but unfortunately, many young people, even analysts, do not seem to know that alternative theories exist and that new observations in biology, endocrinology, physiology, and sociology, have served to disprove many of Freud's early assumptions about “female inferiority,” and the nature of femininity. It is extremely useful to have such a rich selection of the newer writings about the psychology of women collected together in one volume.
The selection of articles was made thoughtfully and impartially, including contributors from many modern schools of psychoanalytic thought, so that one gets a sense of parallel development toward the goal of more unprejudiced understanding of both women as people and their relationship to men. It is as though the writers agreed unwittingly with Sulivan that “we are all more human than otherwise.” The articles have been organized in a coherent order, beginning with the “Early Innovators” (, ), Clara Thompson 1943, Frieda Fromm-Reichman 1950, and a summarizing article by Zilbourg in 1944 comparing biological and cultural aspects. These papers deal primarily with the Freudian misconceptions of the phallus as the only known, organ in early childhood, his assumptions t