Psychoanalysis and sexual difference

Psychoanalysis has made a huge impact on both common sense and academic arguments about how and why women and men might differ in the ways they come to make sense of themselves and of the world. Some sociologists (for example, Barrett, 1992) have found psychoanalytic explanations of gender differences useful in explaining how women and men develop a sense of themselves as gendered. Others like Stevi Jackson (1999) have remained critical of these Freudian ideas that suggest that the early meaning we give our anatomy determines our lives. Before evaluating the sociological debates we need to understand what Freud had to say about the differences between women and men.