Colección: La Educación
Número: (116) III
Año: 1993
14. Elizabeth WRIGHT, ed. Feminism and Psychoanalysis. A Critical Dictionary.
Cambridge, Massachusetts: Blackwell, 1992. 485 p., introduction, dictionary
entries A-Z, bibliography, index.
Now that the initial sensationalism of the feminine liberation movements
of the 1960s in the United States and Britain has been overcome, research
on the socio-educational, cultural and political dimensions of women has definitely
entered a stage of academic thought and consolidation. This book is a serious
and positive contribution to the relationship between feminism and psychoanalysis.
This is not a dictionary in the conventional sense of the term since it defines
terms and then explores them, giving a historical and political context and
relating them with distinct dimensions of society and culture. The publishers,
in terms of procedures, requested entries from several scholars at the international
level in both fields covered by the book. These contributions do not only
document the history of the concepts and their interrelations, but also the
controversy around them, their political importance for feminism, and the
progress made in research on the subject by theoreticians or users. The dictionary
was planned in such a way that each definition covers three dimensions to
accurately present the impact of the relationship between feminism and psychoanalysis.
The first dimension is historical; the historical concept, debates, controversies,
and implications of the term are presented. The dictionarys second dimension
is psychoanalytic, and is centered primarily on the visions of Freud to Lacan.
The third dimension is political, and is geared toward the reuse of each word
in psychoanalytic theory and practice to facilitate social change. In addition,
the authors of each of the entries included a select and updated bibliography
for each topic. Feminism and Psychoanalysis: A Critical Dictionary is one
of the most important contemporary contributions published in recent years,
evidencing a bright and careful conception by the book publishers, impeccable
research by the authors of each one of its entries, and an essential instrument
for every researcher or teacher in the field of feminism and psychoanalysis.