The essay discusses the proposition that psychoanalysis has not yet faced up to its patriarchal origins. The connection of important theoretical developments within psychoanalysis to this patriarchal source remains as yet equally unresolved. On the contrary, psychoanalysis reinforces patriarchal defense structures. These, in their turn, are based on constructions of womanhood which serve as a container for what is socially proscribed, and which at the same time legitimize the prevailing relationship between the sexes. There is almost no place here for an independent, nonderived definition of what is female, and for female symbols.

Using various arguments, psychoanalysis explains why this is so, without ever questioning the ideology behind it. In contrast, the task of “feminist” psychoanalysis would be to ask whether men and women wish to maintain this status quo, and otherwise to reveal the underlying unconscious fantasies. This could be a first step here to equality between the sexes.