Body Ego and the Preoedipal Roots of Feminine Gender Identity

Abstract

Traditionally, visual cues (that is, seeing the difference between one's own genitals and those of the opposite sex) and the fantasies that they prompt were thought to be the central determinants in the organization of gender identity. More recently attention has been focused on mother-infant interaction patterns, on the construction of the body itself, on its kinesthetic sensations, and on the fantasies that these evoke. These matters are now thought to be equal in importance to the traditional considerations. The resulting concept of a core gender identity has suggested the possibility of various forms of preoedipal genital anxiety. This paper discusses how two experiences common to childhood as well as adulthood--the tumescence of erectile tissue and the involuntary vaginal secretions of sexual arousal--may contribute to the organization of feminine gender identity. Case material, including a close examination of an analytic hour, is presented to show how this process may manifest itself in adult neurotic conflict.

Representing Female Desire Within A Labial Framework of Sexuality

“…While there is a claim of transfer from oral to anal to genital zone in the traditional representation of psychosexual development, the "unthought" or insufficiently articulated experience of erotic bodily sensations in girls seems more accurately conceptualized as arousal saturating multiple areas of the body simultaneously. The secretions that accompany sexual arousal, the mucous, viscous fluids generated, as waves of erotic excitement swell throughout and deep inside the body, are features of female experience throughout childhood and are constitutive of the experience of being a girl (Lasky 2000(Lasky , p. 1392). 9 The experience of becoming wet and engorged is so specifically female that it is unrepresentable within a phallic framework that conceptualizes sexual arousal as becoming hard and erect.…”

“…Marcus andFrancis (1975, cited in Kulish 1991) have claimed that the entire genital and anal areas are responsive throughout childhood. Lasky (2000) points to the internal manifestation of tumescence when a girl's "erectile tissue" becomes engorged during sexual arousal, and describes it as "a deep and rich inner-body experience, the sensations of which actively libidinize the interior of the body" (p. 1390). The special hypercathexis of the boy's penis, as if it were an object external to the body, cultivates splits both in his body image and in his relations with girls, separating loving feelings from sexual ones, while in girls sexual arousal saturates diffuse areas of the body interior, making the entire body a locus of pleasure.…”

“…Lasky's claim that the integration of sexually influenced self-representations occurs earlier in girls than in boys resonates with Kesten berg 's claim (1975) that an inner genital stage precedes an external genital (or phallic) stage. Moreover, vaginal secretions accompany sexual arousal and tumescence from earliest infancy, are a feature of female experience throughout childhood, and are "an important constituent of the experience of being a girl" (Lasky 2000(Lasky , p. 1392. The experience of sexuality, therefore, is neither solely male nor bisexual, in some sense of being neutral, but it is sexually different, male or female from the beginning.…”

“…This libidinization of the whole body suggests toLasky (2000) an interrelation between body experience, body ego, body image, and gender experience.…”

O Rorschach e a função materna no sujeito transexual

“…Não obstante, estudos relevantes sobre esta matéria indicam a presença de distorções na percepção da integridade corporal (Marone, Iacoella, Cecchini, Ravenna, & Ruggieri, 1998), bem como a ausência de uma simples inversão dos papéis sexuais (sex-role-patterns) nos sujeitos transexuais M-F e F-M (JegliNska, Grabowska, & Dulko, 2002). Dado que as representações da imagem sexual se articulam numa relação entre os traços fisiológicos (cavidades/saliências), a vivência corporal e a relação com o mundo externo (Larsky, 2000), podemo-nos, pois, questionar sobre as suas sucessivas integrações a um nível simbólico no sujeito transexual.…”