A social history of the concept of femininity in psychoanalysis from 1910 to 1930

Abstract

This paper examines the role played in shaping the concept of femininity in Freudian psychoanalysis by the perspective on women present in Victorian society at the beginning of twentieth century. We start from the works of Sigmund Freud and some of his most important ideas. Freud’s notion of femininity will then be seen against the broader social and historical context of his time. This step – which will take us to examine hysterics, mediums, telegraphers, activists, telephonists and typists – will shed some light on the concreteness of the abstractions made by concerning women