Accounting for Gender in Contemporary Psychoanalysis: Discussion of Terhaar

This discussion considers Virginia Terhaar's thesis that contemporary psychoanalysis continues to marginalize women and ignores the impact of gender in theorizing, resulting in a psychoanalytic landscape that denies subjectivity to women and relies on masculine subjectivity as a default and unquestioned position. I suggest that, although sexism is present in contemporary psychoanalytic culture, women are strongly represented in current theorizing. Further, I challenge the notion of female and male subjectivity as a binary conceptualization of gender, and I suggest that gender is complex and paradoxical. I argue for a more inclusive notion of gender when approaching these positions.