Psychoanalysing Patriarchy Ills

This article takes as its starting point the psychoanalytic work of Freud, Jacques Lacan and Melanie Klein, and its feminist development in London and Paris by Juliet Mitchell, Julia Kristeva and others. Psychotherapist Janet Sayers goes on to cite cases from her own practice, together with parallels drawn from European literature and film, to highlight the damage done by four defences (repression, depression, mania, and obsessive and schizoid fragmentation) perpetuating inflated fantasies about men and masculinity spawned by patriarchal, male-dominated society. She accordingly concludes by stressing the continuing need to address, expose and challenge the roots of these fantasties both therapeutically and politically.