FREUD ON GIRLS: 'They go through an early age in which they envy their brothers their signs of masculinity and feel at a disadvantage and humiliated because of the lack of it...'

FREUD ON WOMEN: 'At one time (in a matriarchal society) the woman may have bee the dominant partner. In this way, like the defeated deities, she acquired demonic properties...'

AND ON HIMSELF: 'My mother was nowhere to be found; I was crying in despair. My brother Philip...unlocked a wardrobe for me, and when I did not find my mother within it either, I cried even more until, slender and beautiful, she came through the door. What can this mean?'

This collection contains Freud's most significant statements on women, taken form letters as well as published work, presenting a clear, accessible view of the progress of his thought and his own struggle for understanding and coherence. Elisabeth Young-Bruehl untangles the arguments, relating Freud's ideas on women and on bisexuality to his clinical practice and broader theory, while the annotated bibliography traces the later disputes.

Elisabeth Young-Bruehl is a writer and pschoanalyst. Her biographyAnna Freudwas hailed as a 'stunning achievement' in Britain and the USA. After obtaining a doctorate, she wrote an award-winning biography of Hannah Arendt. She has published widely in philosophy and psychoanalysis and her work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Guggenheim Foundation. She is is based in Toronto, where she is a member of the Toronto Psychoanalytic Society and co-director of Caversham Productions (Psychoanalytic Educational Resources).

Ever since Freud first unveiled his theories of female psychology, his views have been the focus of intense debate; from his contemporaries' denial of 'infantile sexuality' to the feminist attacks of recent years.>