In October 1994, the Cincinnati Psychoanalytic Institute saw the first fruits of its Women's Study Group, the publication of a series of three papers in the institutes Internal Journal. Founding faculty members of the group are Rena Kay, Joanne G. Lindy, Janet Newman, and Ann Wierwille. The group was organized in 1992 to explore psychoanalytic theory related to the psychological development of women and to apply those ideas to commonly occurring clinical problems specific to female patients. Out of such work it was expected that a research focus would evolve that would combine the group's interests. Over the ensuing two years, group members found the process of their work to be as interesting and stimulating as their product, as they wrestled with differing interests, ideas, and nuances of theory. The first issue taken up by the group was the acknowledgment of these differences and the creation of a safe and respectful context for dealing with them. Metaphors arose spontaneously out of discussions to convey this dilemma. At the outset, and at several other times during the groups work, members found themselves searching for “women's metaphors” to capture ideas and processes. In the initial months the image of a quilt evolved. The group began to see that its intellectual work might evolve much as does the work at a quilting bee, where women come together to work on different patterns at different rates, seeing at times whole pictures and at others parts and fragments, but gradually piecing the work together in such a way that a lovely and intricate pattern emerges. This metaphor helped the group on several occasions when its work became diffuse or members found themselves at loggerheads.
In general, members found that as women, they often had difficulty dealing with differences and disagreements in the group. The impulse was to be nice, to be polite, to agree or at least keep quiet if one didn't. Yet the group realized that its work would be less rich if differences were not openly discussed. Gradually members came to acknowledge differences more openly and to work with them as different aspects of the quilt's pattern, incorporating them into the group process.
After the first year of work, the group presented four papers — four blocks of the “quilt” — to the institute's Faculty Forum. Each faculty member had pursued a different but related issue. Joanne Lindy presented the first paper, exploring the existence and origins of phallocentric biases in the Western intellectual tradition and the ways in which those biases influenced the assumptions of Freud's intellectual milieu and his own work. Ann Wierwille gave the second presentation, which looked at the ways in which Freud's personal and familial history related to his experiences of femininity, and may have contributed to a blindness on his part regarding the reality and power of the female body and psyche. Janet Newman presented a paper on the historical impact of the discovery of the male role in procreation as it may have influenced men's efforts to control and dominate women. Finally, Rena Kay explored and criticized the construct of penetration anxiety as an hypothesized universal dilemma for women. All four papers were enthusiastically discussed at the Faculty Forum and were later presented at a community forum for mental health professionals.
During the second year of work, the group moved beyond the criticism of incorrect hypotheses, mostly by male theoreticians, to an articulation of what contemporary analytic writers describe as the positive or proactive developmental challenges facing women. During this year the group reviewed the literature on these challenges at each developmental stage. Included among them were the capacity to know and name the female genitalia, the capacity to know and feel pleasure in internal space, the vicissitudes of the relationship with the mother, and the challenges of adolescence. Through this work, the group arrived at the project of sketching a developmental matrix for understanding the interrelation of the biopsychosocial issues impacting on female development. Using Anna Freud's model of developmental lines as a template, the group worked in its discussions to integrate the many new ideas that over the past ten to fifteen years have appeared in the psychoanalytic literature. Members also continued discussing the clinical dilemmas presented by their female patients, with the goal of identifying common themes and developing a research focus.
In the spring of 1994 members prepared for and completed a consultation with Elizabeth Lloyd Mayer, whose recent work was discussed as it related to the ideas being developed by the group. Her visit was used to identify additional areas of work for the group to explore.
In addition to studying women's issues, the group also experiences them. Family demands on all of the group's members have occasioned slower progress than had initially been projected. The study group, however, allowed members to share with one another the personal dilemmas they experienced as these demands competed and conflicted with those of clinical practice and intellectual pursuits. It is in this dimension of “process” that the group has been extraordinarily helpful and supportive. A context has been developed in which members feel that, as women, they can explore their ideas even while acknowledging the emotional connections that vie for their attention. The group provides its members support in dealing with these emotional dilemmas, as well as intellectual stimulus.
The group has been supportive in a number of other ways. Members have gone on to give presentations in the community, to organize a course for the institute's extension division, and finally, to confront some of the unconscious phallocentric biases within analytic institutions. Members have been able to support and encourage one another, to “bear with the pain and continue to breathe.” Through this process they serve as midwives, helping one another through long periods of gestation and through exhausting and painful labors, issuing ultimately in the excitement of new ideas.