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The image that inspires and enlivens this book is presented by one of the author's analysands who brings to her a portion of a story written by Helen Garner, entitled ‘Fencing for Older Adults’. In it, Garner parries with her opponent and observes that her aggression not only connects her in passionate love to herself and to the other— she is struck by the femininity of her opponent as she removes her mask after the match.
Austin links this offering by her analysand to other products of analytic discourse. Austin acknowledges that some women talk about being angry all their lives, or at least for decades. Austin wonders about the purpose of these energies, how they are informed by the categories of female identity within Western culture and how they interact with identity formation in women.
For Austin, women long for a trial of strength with the Other in order to find out something about themselves. They desire to learn how to fight cleanly; to fight to connect; to perpetuate passionate love; to not give into the deadness of identities that are stifling. But why does this not work for so many women? Why do women's aggressive energies get bound up in self-hate or in masochism?
Written first as a PhD thesis, Austin discovered through non-clinical conversations with friends, acquaintances and strangers, that many women were interested in the ‘pleasures and terrors’ of her topic. If a particular woman showed interest, Austin asked that woman to write down some of her responses to Austin's original thesis. Those responses and Austin's reflection on them constitute the book. After several drafts and a dialogue with her own process, Austin re-presents her thesis to her original contributors. Of the original fourteen, seven responded. Their responses indicate that women's aggressive energies show up at the edges of female identity. Aggression for most women lies at the edge of what Western culture considers to be feminine. Self-hatred, fantasies of rape and violence and eleme