Psychodynamic Explanations of Gender

• how does the psychosexual stages affect gender?

  • At 3-6 years old, children experience the phallic stage of psychosexual development, and their crisis here is to establish their own gender identity. Although both males and females are believed to go through the phallic stage, each gender has their own difficulty to overcome.
• how does the oedipus complex affect gender?

  • During the phallic stage, boys experience feelings of desire for their mother. They are rivalled by their father for her attention and as a result, wish to remove him. Boys fear their father finding out about this, and they experience castration anxiety. The ego defence mechanism repression causes the boys to repress their desires for their mothers and to identify with their fathers. Once this occurs, the boys will internalise their fathers’ gender roles, attitudes and behaviours, internalising these as their own gender traits.
• how does the electra complex affect gender?

  • girls experience feelings of desire for their fathers in the phallic stage of psychosexual development. They also feel strong resentment for their mothers and blame them for the absence of a penis. Girls experience penis envy and the desire to be boys. The fear experienced by the girls cause these desires to be repressed, and the penis envy is substituted by the desire for a baby. Once this occurs, the girls will identify with their mother and her attitudes and behaviours will be internalised by the young girls as their own gender traits.
• evaluating the psychodynamic explanation for gender development

  • lacks scientific credibility. This is because the explanation is reliant on concepts such as repression and the phallic stage. These concepts underpin the explanation of gender; however, they are non-falsifiable and can be neither proven nor disproven. This contrasts to Karl Popper's idea of falsifiability and the ability to be disproven in order to keep science advancing. Therefore, the psychodynamic paradigm does not contribute to the scientific understanding of gender as much as other paradigms do.
• evaluating the psychodynamic approach for gender development

  • supported by case study evidence: Freud presented the Little Hans case study to support the existence of the phallic stage of development. Little Hans presented with a phobia of horses. Freud concluded that Hans was experiencing the Oedipus complex and that he was subconsciously scared of his father. This fear manifested as a fear of horses. Freud concluded that the study of Little Hans provided support for his theory of psychosexual development.
• evaluating the psychodynamic approach for gender development

  • Freud was the first person to highlight the importance of childhood in mental health. This is an idea that is still used today when considering gender disorders such as gender dysphoria. The psychodynamic understanding of gender can both offer explanations for why gender disorders develop, such as failure to overcome Oedipus/Electra complex and contribute to therapies as a way to support people. Therefore, the psychodynamic theory of gender has led to positive implications in supporting people to improve their mental health.
• evaluating the psychodynamic approach for gender development

  • socially sensitive: in order to internalise their gender identity, children must overcome a complex that requires their family to have a mother and father. This is outdated in today’s society with single parents and same-sex parents. This theory would claim that children in such family structures would be unable to resolve and therefore, struggle with their gender identity. Therefore, the psychodynamic theory lacks temporal validity and as a result is not sensitive to the diversity of societies.
• evaluating the psychodynamic approach for gender development

  • nomothetic approach to gender: It proposes general laws such as the need for all children to overcome the Oedipus/Electra complex to develop their gender. Gender is such a complex part of an identity that individual and cultural differences cannot be ignored, concluding that an idiographic approach to gender would be more appropriate. However, the reliance on case studies in this explanation of gender also indicates that there was an idiographic approach to understanding gender.