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Do we really need another book of essays on penis envy and gender? In the case of this book by Nancy Burke, the answer is a resounding yes. This is one of the best books of its kind and it gives the reader the feeling that if everyone read this book they would finally understand the importance of the body in terms of its effect on one's sense of self, one's relationship to others, one's society and culture but also the crucial role of one's gender in determining one's feeling of satisfaction or anguish over what one has or doesn't have (the very important issue of envy).
Burke (through her experience teaching feminism and psychoanalysis to graduate students in clinical psychology) has obviously realized how much people have turned their backs on Freud because of his views on women. She comments, “since Freud's time, theorists have consistently targeted the issue of penis envy as a locus of debate, outrage, introspection and generative critique. While some have attempted to reappropriate or reinterpret the concept, other have rejected the notion outright, and with it, some or all of Freud's account of women's development, his theory of sexuality, and his general psychoanalytic theory” (p. xiv). The main thesis of her book is that Freud by focusing our attention on the issue of “penis envy” has set the stage for a century of controversy that has been so rich that one often forgets to thank Freud for giving them an opportunity to debate and open up such an important area for exploration. By reading through the five sections of this book, one is actually overcome with awe at the richness of thought that she has compiled.
Each section of the book begins with an introduction by Burke about how the papers fit in to the ongoing controversy over “penis envy.” She shows how each author agrees or disagrees with the others. The introductions are scholarly and provocative. I particularly liked the introduction to Freud's ideas in which she traces not only