On the Development of Female Identity: Issues of Mother-Daughter Interaction During the Separation-Individuation Process

Psychoanalytic views of feminine development have undergone significant changes in the course of the last 20 years. These have come about in part as a result of our growing knowledge of development in the first two years of life. Knowledge has been gained from both psychoanalytic observational research of mother-infant and, increasingly, father-infant, interactions, as well as from the analysis of patients with disturbances in early object relations. This paper is based on clinical work in these two areas and attempts to focus on early processes of internalization and identification that shape the emerging identity themes. With clinical examples of mother-daughter pairs from observational research as illustration, I present some thoughts about the effects of the mother-daughter relationship on problems of individuation in adult women.

A great volume of literature now exists that attempts to provide descriptive and theoretical models for preoedipal development of female gender identity. Roiphe and Galenson (1981) have focused on the early genital phase, the beginning of genital awareness, and