Psychoanalysts of all schools have generally dismissed and sometimes openly disapproved feminism and its critique of male universalism. While other disciplines, like sociology and anthropology, have welcomed the contributions of feminist theory, psychoanalysis remains hindered by its own unconscious, which is patriarchal. This book wants to cast light on the unthought of Freudian and Lacanian theory by way of an analysis of the concept of femininity. The aim is to show how phallocentrism functions as a screen which obscures the real relations between the sexes, the meaning of desire and the understanding of sexual difference.

Marina de Carneri is a psychoanalyst and philosopher. She studied philosophy, psychoanalysis and literature in the US, France and Italy. She completed her Ph.D in Comparative Literature at the State University of New York at Buffalo with a dissertation on sexual difference. Her writing explores the intersections of philosophy, psychoanalysis, anthropology and literature.