PSYCHOLOGY AND ESSENTIALISM - A DISTURBIN G RESURGENCE

Since the beginning of psychology, the link between sex categories and feminine and masculine psychological characteristics has been a highl y controversial issue, which has regularly appeared in both popular sc ience and general public publications. Following the research of the s eventies, the necessary dissociation of sex and gender became widely a ccepted. But probably due in part to the current social crisis, we are seeing a resurgence of the belief that the feminine and masculine nat ures are irreducibly different. This idea is based on a strict, biolog ical dichotomy which denies virtually all social determinants. The aim of the present paper is threefold: (1) to show how this social ideolo gy is in fact only supported by a selection of scientific arguments, ( 2) to discuss the ideological function of these deviations and resulti ng distortions, and (3) to attempt to pinpoint the roots and/or echoes of this social discourse in the recent scientific literature.