If Freud Were a Woman: Gender, Uncertainty, and the Psychology of Being Human

ABSTRACT

This article explores the relationships among gender, uncertainty, and the experience of being human by imagining how psychoanalysis might have evolved had Freud been born female. Since the uncertainty heard in many women’s voices goes hand in hand with their relational focus, I suggest that Freud, the woman, would have developed a trauma-centered theory with an ethical foundation reflecting our human relational longings.

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Doris Brothers

Doris Brothers, Ph.D., is a co-founder of the Training and Research in Intersubjective Self Psychology Foundation. She is co-editor of Psychoanalysis, Self, and Context and chief editor of eForum, the online IAPSP newsletter.