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Biomedical subjects

A K Richards

Publications and source records attributed to A K Richards.

12 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1999

Freud and feminism: a critical appraisal.

This paper traces the contributions made by women to Freud's ideas about women. Freud paid back the gifts he received from women with encouragement and support for their careers and with a theory that was instrumental in freeing women from both domestic bondage and fantasies of inferiority, but which was used by later "Freudians" as justification for returning women to an exclusively domestic life. Paying particular attention to Sabina Spielrein, Lou Andreas-Salomé, and H.D., the paper illustrates some of the contributions of women to early psychoanalysis, and speculates on ways in which Freud's thinking was guided by his belief that women are, and should be considered, equal to men.

Education↗
PubMed1996

Ladies of fashion: pleasure, perversion or paraphilia.

The author considers the reasons why interest in fashion is important in female development. Freud's comment that 'all women are clothes fetishists' and his explanation that a woman uses clothes to show that 'one can find in her everything that one can expect from women' are amplified and challenged by other authors and psychoanalytic evidence. Caper's (1994) focus on the erotic meaning of his patient's clothing is contrasted with the use ego-psychologists have made of 'appropriate' clothing and grooming as markers of mental health and intact functioning. A case of a woman who had a shopping symptom is considered. The roots of the symptom in her fantasy life, its replacement of genital satisfaction, its precursors in interactions with her parents and its use in enacting sado-masochistic fantasies is elaborated in the case material. A second case briefly illustrates the role ascetic refusal of clothing may play in some women's psychic lives. Use of clothing as a way of displaying the body, as an indicator of economic power, as an incitement to envy, and as a sexual enticement is discussed. Examples of understanding of the psychological aspects of interest in clothing are drawn from art, anthropology, sociology, political science and philosophy. The paper concludes with the idea that clothing and shopping for clothing can range from normal pleasure to paraphilia and leaves open the question whether it can be a perversion. Focusing on clinical material about shopping for fashionable clothing, the author shows how shopping can become central in some women's lives as it is important in many. It considers the boundaries between source of pleasure, paraphilia and sexual fetish as they are exemplified in women's attitudes towards clothing and their use of it.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Primary femininity and female genital anxiety.

Primary femininity implies that female development proceeds along lines that generate anxiety about damage and loss similar to the fears of castration that trouble males. The female fears are classified as fear of painful penetration, fear of loss of pleasure, and fear of loss of procreative function. The first two fears are illustrated with clinical material showing the ways in which they manifest themselves in adult women.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Calibration assessment in quantitative electroencephalographic brainmapping and evoked potential studies.

Acquisition of a Cadwell Spectrum 32 resulted in the introduction of quantitative electrophysiological brainmapping techniques in our neurophysiology laboratory. To ascertain the accuracy and consistency of our equipment, we performed the following tests: inputting a calibration signal and measuring the resultant amplitudes for quantitative electroencephalographs (qEEGs) and evoked potentials (EPs) in the mapping and standard montages, inputting a synchronous calibration signal and mapping it at varying times for qEEGs and EPs, as well as re-analysing the same electroencephalographic (EEG) epochs previously selected from 20 control subjects. QEEG amplitudes varied from -5.4% to +5.8% and EPs by 9.5% or less, and after an EP software upgrade, by 5.5% or less. QEEG voltage mapping showed variation of only one color increment across the map, which could, in our example, represent up to 25.2% of the scale used. Re-analysis of previously selected epochs yielded identical results. We have established some of the accuracy and consistency limits of the hard- and software of our system with respect to the quantitative and topographic data. We conclude that such systems need to be calibration-checked in the laboratories in which they are used, with an independent signal generator. Users also need to be aware that scaling of topographic maps could lead to erroneous conclusions, as perceived amplitude changes could affect the interpretation of both initial and serial studies.

Brain Mapping↗
PubMed1992

Hilda Doolittle and creativity. Freud's gift.

The problem of work inhibition in a woman is addressed in terms of a specific case. The paper investigates the patient's view of how such an inhibition was cured in a brief analytic treatment of the American poet Hilda Doolittle conducted by Freud in 1933-34.

Creativity↗
PubMed1992

The influence of sphincter control and genital sensation on body image and gender identity in women.

The development of one aspect of feeling female is hypothesized to account for certain phenomena in the treatment of young women patients. Fear of loss of genital pleasure experienced as contractions of the anal and genital-urinary sphincters is seen as the central issue in conflicts manifested in genital, oral, and anal modalities. It is suggested that the female's awareness of her genital arises from the generalization of sphincter sensation in the little girl, which is then represented in the body image. The body image is postulated as a link between genital pleasure and the valuing of femininity.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

A romance with pain: a telephone perversion in a woman?

The patient repeatedly and compulsively made stereotyped telephone calls to her mother and other female protective figures. She had a history of genito-urinary infections and operations consequent to urinary retention. These symptoms were relieved gradually in the course of analysis, in which this was interpreted as a sado-masochistic perversion based on a central fantasy of phallic intrusions on the mother. The fantasy was related to turning passive viewing into active exhibitionism, actively seeking to inflict pain on herself and others in an attempt to overcome early painful medical intrusions, misplaced identification with the father, complementary relationship with the passive, compliant mother, and consequent failed identification with the oedipal mother. In the analysis, she attained a gradual reorganization of adaptive functions which allowed identification with the father through her work, reconciliation with the rivalrous siblings, and enjoyment of her female sexuality in heterosexual intercourse with the use of a fetishistic requirement that the man be uncircumcised. The hypothesis was developed that whether called a symptom or a perversion, the treatment was the same so that it was most useful to think of it as a compromise formation rather than attempting to preserve a distinction largely based on moralistic considerations.

Adult↗