Juliet Mitchell, Lady Goody (born 4 October 1940) is a British

psychoanalyst PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might ...

, socialist feminist, research professor and author.

Early life and education

Mitchell was born in

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon Rive ...

, New Zealand, in 1940, and then moved to England in 1944, where she stayed with her grandparents in the midlands. She attended St Anne's College, Oxford, where she received a degree in English in 1962, as well as doing

postgraduate Postgraduate or graduate education refers to academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate ( bachelor's) degree. The organization and ...

work. She taught

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...

from 1962 to 1970 at

Leeds University , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , t ...

and Reading University. Throughout the 1960s, Mitchell was active in leftist

politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

, and was on the editorial committee of the journal, '' New Left Review''.

Career

''Women: The Longest Revolution''

Mitchell gained instant media attention with her pathbreaking articl
"Women: The Longest Revolution"
in the '' New Left Review'' (1966), an original synthesis of

Simone de Beauvoir Simone Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir (, ; ; 9 January 1908 – 14 April 1986) was a French existentialist philosopher, writer, social theorist, and feminist activist. Though she did not consider herself a philosopher, and even ...

Frederich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ,"Engels"
''

Viola Klein Viola Klein (1908–1973) was a sociologist in Great Britain. Her work demonstrated that objective ideas about women's attributes are socially constructed. Although her early training was in psychology and philosophy, her most prolific research ...

Betty Friedan Betty Friedan ( February 4, 1921 – February 4, 2006) was an American feminist writer and activist. A leading figure in the women's movement in the United States, her 1963 book '' The Feminine Mystique'' is often credited with sparking the se ...

and other analysts of women's oppression.

The Cambridge University Centre for Gender Studies

She is a fellow professor of Psychoanalysis at the

Jesus College, Cambridge Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's full name is The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge. Its common name comes ...

and founded the Centre for Gender Studies at

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

. In 2010 she was appointed director of the Expanded Doctoral School in Psychoanalytic Studies at the Psychoanalysis Unit of

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

(UCL).

Psychoanalysis and Feminism

Mitchell is best known for her book ''Psychoanalysis and Feminism:

Freud Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts i ...

, Reich, Laing and Women'' (1974), in which she tried to reconcile

psychoanalysis PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might ...

and

feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

at a time when many considered them incompatible. Peter Gay considered it "the most rewarding and responsible contribution" to the feminist debate on

, both acknowledging and rising beyond Freud's male chauvinism in its analysis. Mitchell saw Freud's asymmetrical view of masculinity and femininity as reflecting the realities of patriarchal culture, and sought to use his critique of femininity to critique patriarchy itself. By insisting on the utility of Freud (particularly in a Lacanian reading) for feminism, she opened the way for further critical work on psychoanalysis and gender. She was an Andrew Dickson White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University from 1993 to 1999.

Child-rearing

A substantial part of the thesis of ''Psychoanalysis and Feminism'' is that

Marxism Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

provides a model within which non-

patriarchal Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of dominance and privilege are primarily held by men. It is used, both as a technical anthropological term for families or clans controlled by the father or eldest male or group of males ...

structures for rearing children could occur. The lack of the 'family romance' would remove the

Oedipus complex The Oedipus complex (also spelled Œdipus complex) is an idea in psychoanalytic theory. The complex is an ostensibly universal phase in the life of a young boy in which, to try to immediately satisfy basic desires, he unconsciously wishes to h ...

from a child's development, thus liberating women from the consequences of penis envy and the feeling of being castrated which Mitchell contends is the root cause of women's acceptance that they are inferior. According to Mitchell, children are socialised into appropriate gender roles, therefore, women grow to be equally socialised into becoming the caretakers of their households.

Feminine sexuality

In her introduction to

Jacques Lacan Jacques Marie Émile Lacan (, , ; 13 April 1901 – 9 September 1981) was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. Described as "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Freud", Lacan gave yearly seminars in Paris from 1953 to 1981, and ...

on feminine sexuality, Mitchell stresses that "in the Freud that Lacan uses, neither the unconscious nor sexuality... repre-given facts, they are constructions; that is, they are objects with histories".

Bibliography

Monographs

* * ::Reissued as: * * *

Edited books

* * * * *

References

External links

"Women: The Longest Revolution" by Juliet Mitchell (1966)

University of Cambridge profile

UCL profile

Women's Rights: Radical Change
– video of Mitchell appearing in a BBC debate first televised in 1974
A Conversation with Juliet Mitchell

Interviewed by Alan Macfarlane 6 May 2008 (video)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mitchell, Juliet 1940 births Alumni of St Anne's College, Oxford British feminists Fellows of Jesus College, Cambridge Feminist studies scholars Feminist psychologists Living people British socialist feminists British psychoanalysts Academics of the University of Leeds Academics of the University of Reading Academics of the University of Cambridge Academics of University College London Fellows of the British Academy New Left New Zealand emigrants to the United Kingdom Wives of knights