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Background:
Leading theorist in
feminist psychology, Nancy Chodorow was born in New York, on January 20, 1944. Growing
up, she had many influences on the world around her, as her father, Marvin, was
a professor in applied physics. Through life experiences and questions about
the world, Chodorow developed herself and became a sociologist, psychoanalyst,
and an educator. At the age of 22, Nancy Chodorow became a 1966 graduate of Radcliffe
College, who then went off to continue pursuing her dream of became a psychoanalyst.
Furthermore, to go about this, she studied at the University of Brandeis; where
she earned her PhD in sociology. Moving forward, she later went on to receive her
psychoanalytic training at the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute; where
she earned other her PhD from Brandeis University, in 1975. But while devoting
a great deal of time and effort into her college work, she also stayed
committed as a teacher.
Regarding her academic
career during the years 1973 – 1986, Chodorow became an educator in Wellesley
College, where she taught Women’s Studies, and soon after transferred over to
Santa Cruz where she became the Assistant Professor of Sociology from years
1974-1986. During this time, she contributed in many different organizations,
such as the Fellow of the Russell Sage Foundation, Center for the Advanced
Study of Behavioral Sciences, the American Sociological Association, and the
National Women’s Study Association. Additionally, while dedicating time to her
obligations, she was able to publish her first work, The Reproduction of Mothering, which received the Jessie Bernard
Award in 1979. Devoting her time and effort to all of these associations and to
her work made her life an extraordinary one because she also devoted a great
deal of time to her husband and children. She married an economics professor,
Michael Reich, and had two children with him, Rachel and Gabriel. Even though
their relationship came to an end in 1977, through this experience she became
more “aware” of herself, and began to further her work in women and mothering.
Nancy
Chodorow works where based mainly on the premise of the central role that
mothers play in child rearing. While acknowledging mothers in her work, she
also provided correlations between mothers, the family, gender, and society. It
was her works and books, such as The
Power of Feelings: Personal Meaning in Psychoanalysis, Gender, and Culture and The Reproduction of Mothering, that really emphasized her passion
for making people aware of issues women deal with in their everyday lives. Through
her glorified work, she became a recipient for countless amounts of awards that
recognized her for her outstanding contribution to feminist theory. In the year
2000, she was awarded the Distinguished Contribution to Women and
Psychoanalysis Award and the L. Bryce Boyer Prize.
Work
on Psychology of Women and Sex Differences:
As
Nancy Chodorow’s work still remains adored by many in her field of work, she
always continued to explore more about personalities and Freud’s behavioral
theories. In contrast to Freud’s views on human behavior, Chodorow began to theorize
behavioral ideas based on a woman’s stand point. This also caused Chodorow to
expand on previous work done by women on this topic, such as Karen Horney and
feminist, Melanie Klein. Furthermore, she approached psychoanalysis by focusing
on the relationship between the mother and the children, unlike Freud where he
based his theories off of the development of the father and the son. In
exploring this concept, Chodorow made it particularly clear that psychoanalysis
should be seen as the “process of reconstructing the felt past” (Rubinstein
pg.1). She stayed on this thought that people can only identify with others and
themselves if they create a connection between their past and their present. This
gave way to comparing how people perceived the idea of “self” in the past to
how people view the idea of “self” today and how the past thoughts contributed
to today thoughts.
By
examining these thoughts and theories, Nancy Chodordow presented a new way for psychotherapy
to occur. She has now provided the client with the opportunity to analyze the
role of his/her gender in relation to others in his/her life. This will further
intertwine with a client’s emotional construct, and psychologist can work
together with the client to try and “fix” this emotional construct. Moreover,
as stated before, due to her overwhelming contribution to the field of
psychology, Nancy Chodorow continues to get praised, and her methods and
theories continue to be practice till this very day.
How
Her Work Fits into Our Class:
Through
examine Nancy Chodorow life and achievements it is clear that she has a great
impact in what we are learning today in Psychology of Women. She has not only
been able to prove many psychoanalyst that the view of a women matters when
speaking about human behavior, but she came up with a new practice that is now exercised
by many psychologist. Furthermore, she brings up the idea of feminist theory
and how it should be intertwined with the ideas of psychology, which is what
this class is all about. We are trying to redefine the pervious notions of human
behavior, and transform it in away where both males and females are appropriately
recognized.
References:
Cristian Jaime
Psychology of Women
Professor Hill
6 February 2013
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Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Nancy Choborow
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