Abstract

This dissertation examines the major conclusions of an influential theory in the psychology of women to highlight the role of underlying assumptions in modern psychoanalytic theories of women. The analysis utilized the root metaphor theory of Stephen Pepper and key ideas from the current deconstructionist criticism. In particular I attempted to understand the essential epistemological assumptions and vision of psychoanalytic theory and evidence that influenced Chodorow's view of gender and description of female personality development. The analysis revealed the following points about Chodorow's work. She accepts positivist and foundational assumptions about the nature of theory and evidence, which limit her examination of the premises underlying her work. Chodorow's specific psychoanalytic conclusions are in excess of the evidence and are exaggerated by her underlying suppositions. Formist and mechanistic assumptions about the structure and functioning of society accentuate the role of universal patterns and deterministic forces in her account of personality development. Her concept of gender is based on a formist relation of binary dichotomy that exaggerates the nature of gender differences and limits which characteristics define women. Her assumptions about men and women's differing boundaries and relational capacities are based on traditional assumptions of mothering and the self, and physical metaphors of psychic structure. These concepts result in a view of women that minimizes subjectivity and diversity and repeats stereotypes about women's personality. After illustrating the problems with this type of analysis, I propose an alternate framework for the psychological study of women drawn from postmodern literature, based not on deterministic models of causality or universal forms, but on a hermeneutic study of evidence and a contextual model of human interaction and self