Freudian Theory

Psychologists have been interested in gender-identity formation since the
work of Sigmund Freud and other early psychoanalytic theorists in the beginning
of the twentieth century. Since the early 1970’s, however, there has
been a major shift in thinking about this topic, largely as a result of the
women’s movement. Early work in this area considered sex typing to be a
healthy and desirable goal for children. Since the 1970’s, much research has
been based on the assumption that rigid adherence to traditional gender
roles is restrictive and undesirable.
Freud’s theory of psychosexual development was the first to attempt to explain
gender-identity formation. Freud believed that sex-typed behavior results
primarily from girls identifying with (wanting to be like) their mothers
and boys identifying with their fathers. However, he believed that during infancy
both boys and girls form strong sexual feelings for their mothers and
identify with them. Thus, Freud tried to explain how boys come to identify
with their fathers and how girls transfer their sexual feelings to their fathers.
Freud believed that the discovery that girls and women do not have penises
leads the three- to five-year-old boy to develop great fear that he will
lose his own penis (castration anxiety). As a result, the boy begins to identify
with his father out of fear that the father will take away his penis. He gives up
his identification with his mother and suppresses his sexual feelings toward
her. For a little girl, the same discovery leads to penis envy and to blaming
her mother for her lack of this desired organ. Because of her disappointment,
she transfers her sexual feelings from her mother to her father, and
she fantasizes that her father will give her a penis substitute—a baby.
Freud’s theory was an important inspiration for much of the work done
on gender identity prior to the late 1960’s. Since that time, however, developmental
psychologists have not often used Freud’s theory because most of
its concepts rely on the idea of unconscious forces that cannot be evaluated
scientifically.
Freud’s idea that “anatomy is destiny”—that profound psychological differences
between the sexes are inevitable—met with strong criticism with
the rise of the women’s movement. The issue of the relative importance of
biological, genetic factors (or “nature”) compared with experiential, social
factors (or “nurture”) in gender-identity formation has been a major source
of controversy in psychology. Most psychologists acknowledge a role for
both nature and nurture in forming differences in the behavior of boys and
girls. Psychologists are interested in understanding the ways in which inborn
capacities (such as cognitive organization) interact with environmental experiences
in forming a person’s identity as a male or a female.
The twentieth century experienced a great upheaval in thinking about
gender roles, and this has been mirrored by changes in psychological research
and theory about gender. The growing scientific understanding of
gender identity may help to form future societal attitudes as well as being
formed by them.

Sources for Further Study
Abbott, Tina. Social and Personality Development. New York: Routledge, 2002.
An introductory psychology textbook. Part 2 covers gender and gender
identity development.
Bem, Sandra Lipsitz. The Lenses of Gender: Transforming the Debate on Sexual Inequality.
New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1993. Discusses theories
about gender relations through the lenses of androcentrism (taking
male experience for the norm), gender polarization (placing male and
female experience at opposite ends of a cultural spectrum, with nothing
in between), and biologic essentialism (using biological differences to account
for cultural realities).
Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble. Reprint. New York: Routledge, 1999. The
tenth anniversary reprint of this classic work on gender formation and
transgression in American society.
Fast, Irene. Gender Identity: A Differentiation Model. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence
Erlbaum, 1984. Reviews theories in the light of Freudian psychoanalytic
theory.
Kimmel, Michael. The Gendered Society. New York: Oxford University Press,
2001. Examines gender from the positions of difference (placing “male”
and “female” on a spectrum rather than opposite ends of a pole) and
dominance (arguing that gender inequality causes the perception of gender
difference, which in turn is used to justify inequality).
Unger, Rhoda K., ed. Handbook of the Psychology of Women and Gender. New
York: John Wiley & Sons, 2001. A clinical and research handbook covering
major theories, trends, and advances in the psychology of women and
gender. Emphasizes multicultural issues and the impact of gender on
physical and mental health.
Lesley A. Slavin
See also: Development; Hormones and Behavior; Personality Theory; Psychoanalytic
Psychology and Personality: Sigmund Freud; Women’s Psychology:
Karen Horney; Women’s Psychology: Sigmund Freud.