Abstract:

This study, combining sociology with psychoanalysis, is devoted to analyze predominantly theoretical explanations of Nancy Chodorow on maternity role, an object relations theoretician who re-approaches S. Freud’s arguments on sexual development with a feminist point of view. Scrutinizing in her theory the question why the woman wants to be a mother, for Chodorow, the reason of the reproduction of maternity is their constant need for individual relation and not getting the response of this need from other individuals, especially from males whose prime status is identified in public domain. In Chodorow’s thought – assigns the main reason of the asymmetric structure of the social sex organization and also sex-based division of labour to the asymmetrically organized parental system – beside biologic maternity, structuring of socio-cultural maternity as “the role of woman” is the major source of the asymmetric role organization and social inequality. Although Chodorow’s theoretical approach, which regards heterosexuality as a norm and accepts it as the result of the feminine socialization, contains criticism against Freud, at this point shows parallelisms with him. Having a short scope and being inadequate against the explanations on differentiation of homosexuality and sex identities, Chodorow’s feminist-psychoanalyst approach at the same time depends on biologic duality. According to her, heterosexual marriage and maternity have central and descriptive characteristics in the social organization of sex.

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