The Bonds of Love: Psychoanalysis, Feminism, & the Problem of Domination (Paperback)

by Jessica Benjamin (Author) "PSYCHOANALYSIS HAS SHIFTED its focus since Freud, aiming its sights toward ever earlier phases of development in childhood and infancy..." (more)
Key Phrases: identificatory love, hypnotic leader, intersubjective theory, New York, Sir Stephen, The Interpersonal World of the Infant (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Benjamin, psychoanalyst, feminist theorist and member of the graduate faculty of the New School for Social Research, presents an intriguing analysis of the interplay between love and domination and of how "domination is anchored in the hearts of the dominated." She builds on the foundation of Freud's Oedipal theory, critically revising it to include the female's struggle for independence. Acknowledging indebtedness to the seminal works of Simone de Beauvoir, Carol Gilligan, Nancy Chodorow, Evelyn Fox Keller and Dorothy Dinnerstein, the author sets out to demonstrate that "what appears in Freudian thought as the psychological inevitability of domination can be traced to the social fact of woman's subjugation." The book's conclusion offers the hope that feminism can help end the cycle of domination by opening up "a new possibility of mutual recognition between men and women." Intelligent, thoughtful and informed, this volume deserves a wide audience. Freud once asked, "What do women want?" and Benjamin goes a long way toward providing an answer.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
"A clear, closely argued study of power and desire, which succeeds in making psychic life a social reality."

Richard Sennett, author of The Fall of Public Man

"An important book...an amazingly lucid account of the way power all too often becomes intertwined with gender."

Ethel Person, New York Times Book Review

"Many of us have long admired Jessica Benjamin's intricate rethinking of social theory and psychoanalytic theory. The Bonds of Love gives us Benjamin at her best, and psychoanalytic social theory at its best, as she demonstrates brilliantly the complex intertwining of familial, gender, and social domination."

Nancy Chodorow, author of The Reproduction of Mothering -- Review

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Pantheon (July 12, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394757300
• ISBN-13: 978-0394757308
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #134,246 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good but very dense., July 10, 1998

By A Customer

Initially I was shown this book by a friend because it contains an analysis of the "Story of O".

I especially liked the attempt by Benjamin to work out a cogent explanation of the source and nature of feminine Sexual Desire. She doesn't arrive at adefinitive model but does present a convincing case that it lies in the sense of being able to feel safe and free within a "transistional space" wherein one feels ones drives as being from ones own self and not the result of identifcation with the other.

Overall a very dense book, that for me rewarded skipping around alot.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Salvaging Freud, January 19, 2003

By	tamiii "tamiii" (San Juan Capistrano, Ca. United States) - See all my reviews

In remarkably clear language, Benjamin reworks Freudian psychoanalysis so to include the possibility of mothers and fathers mutually recognizing each other as subjects thereby enabling a cooperative relationship where similarities and differences are acknowledged. Without this modification, she argues that traditional Freudian theories with their sole reliance on individual intrapsychic reality cannot help but reproduce patriarchal gender relationships which are characterized by domination and submission, most notably reflected in the cultural polarity of male rationality and female vulnerability as seen, for example, in the Story of O. She further argues that the dispassionate rationality of the marketplace masks not only the dependency of the working class but male domination as well. Convincing in its integration of Freudian theory with both feminism and marxism, it marks a significant step forward in understanding how the personal is indeed political.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Ties that Bind, August 1, 2001

By A Customer

Are a bit ephemeral, according to Benjamin, for they suppose and originate in the constitutive acts of an other subject, acts which not only may recognize one's subjectivity but also fail to recognize one's subjectivity. Thus the pain when such a failure occurs. Thus the efforts individuals expend to manage their lives to avoid such pain.

Benjamin's book was hardly the first to address these issues. It was, however, the first to address them systematically while relating them to feminist theory. An important book. A must read for those interested in Left political and social theory.