Judith Van Herik.
Here is a new interpretation of Freud's writings that examines the centrality of misogyny to his thought. It discovers links between his negative evaluation of femininity, his critical thought as a whole, and his criticism of religious belief. Freud on Femininity and Faith shows how gender measures value in Freud's thinking, specifically in two of the books on religion-The Future of an Illusion and Moses and Monotheism. Professor Van Herik delineates relation- ships within his theories that have previously gone unremarked. Her approach ties together his presupposition of the primacy of fathers, his claims about the dangers of wish-fulfilling illusions, his accounts of the asymmetrical devel- opment of masculinity and femininity, and his psychology of religion. This will be a work of signal importance to students of Freud, religion, the psy- chology of religion, and feminist social theory.

"An analysis that clarifies how and why Freud was a misogynist thinker... It is a valuable contribution to Freud scholarship, to feminist social theory and to the history of ideas, and will also be helpful to readers of Marcuse, Brown, Ricoeur and Lacan.... With clarity and remarkable thoroughness, Van Herik has explored Freud's normative and governing androcentrism. This stud should help readers to understand the psychoanalytic perspective at the hear of Freud's own misogyny. It also makes clear why sexism is so pervasive i our culture." Christian Century