PRETENTIOUS, PREPOSTEROUS, PATHETIC - A RESPONSE TO HENKING,SUSAN ANDTO DALY,MARY ON PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION

This response provides critique both of Mary Daly's work and of Henkin g's (1993) treatment of Dalys material. Critique of Daly's works focus es on the inappropriate use of psychological concepts and the rejectin g and paranoid attitudes she displays toward religion, society, men, a nd women. Although Daly's works appear to be founded in psychology, sh e applies terms meant to describe intrapersonal psychological phenomen a (e.g., projection, introjection) to entire religious and ideological systems. Daly advocates dissolution of psychology as patriarchal, but does so using terms borrowed from Freud, Jung, Maslow (i.e., the patr iarchs of psychology). Rather than reconstructing psychology, her own pathological hatred is evidenced in splitting (Good Women, Bad Men) an d paranoia. The solution Daly espouses is to annihilate men and despis e women. Henking's (1993) treatment, though quoting extensively from D aly, reduces the material to bland, footnoted academic prose. She ther eby misses communication of Dalys willful rejection of reason.