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A Viennese neurologist who developed the theory and practice of psychoanalysis. The popularity of psychoanalysis in postwar America, particularly its explanations of female behavior, led many women suffering from the problem that has no name into the offices of psychiatrists. Friedan argues that Americans had adopted the bad habit of reading Freud literally and of making the mistake of applying his Victorian ideas to their era. Penis envy (Freud’s notion that little girls who could not accept their lack of a penis grew into women who tried to compensate for that lack by pursuing masculine interests, such as careers) validated the feminine mystique and convinced women who did not conform to it that they were perverse.
Sigmund Freud Quotes in The Feminine Mystique
The The Feminine Mystique quotes below are all either spoken by Sigmund Freud or refer to Sigmund Freud . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 5
Quotes
“Normal” femininity is achieved, however, only insofar as the woman finally renounces all active goals of her own, all her own “originality,” to identify and fulfill herself through the activities and goals of her husband, or son.
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Girls who grew up playing baseball, baby-sitting, mastering geometry—almost independent enough, almost resourceful enough, to meet the problems of the fission-fusion era—were told by the most advanced thinkers of our time to go back and live their lives as if they were Noras, restricted to the doll’s house by Victorian prejudice. And their own respect and awe for the authority of science—anthropology, sociology, psychology share that authority now—kept them from questioning the feminine mystique.
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Sigmund Freud Quotes in The Feminine Mystique
The The Feminine Mystique quotes below are all either spoken by Sigmund Freud or refer to Sigmund Freud . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 5
Quotes
“Normal” femininity is achieved, however, only insofar as the woman finally renounces all active goals of her own, all her own “originality,” to identify and fulfill herself through the activities and goals of her husband, or son.
Related Characters:
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Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Girls who grew up playing baseball, baby-sitting, mastering geometry—almost independent enough, almost resourceful enough, to meet the problems of the fission-fusion era—were told by the most advanced thinkers of our time to go back and live their lives as if they were Noras, restricted to the doll’s house by Victorian prejudice. And their own respect and awe for the authority of science—anthropology, sociology, psychology share that authority now—kept them from questioning the feminine mystique.
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Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
