On the desymbolization of psychoanalytic metaphors of gender - Commentary on Velleda C. Ceccoli's "Beyond milk and the good breast: Reconfiguring thematernal function in psychoanalytic dyads"

Ceccoli (1999a) argues that, because of their capacity for maternity, women analysts are capable of certain interventions that men are not. Taking iss ue with such assertions, this commentary argues that although the gendered metaphors of psychoanalytic intervention have changed usefully since Freud' s paternalistic imagery, in favor of the maternal language of Klein and Win nicott, these metaphors are regressive if their value as symbolism is under mined. Ceccoli's case study is revisited and reevaluated to posit an altern ative view: that theory is sometimes employed to fill gaps that might be mo re productively tolerated in the service of the analysis. It is argued that Ceccoli's use of Kristevan theory to support an essentialist position that translocates the paternal phallus into the female analysts' "gendered, bod ily specificity ... on the basis of our capacity for maternity" (p. 695) is an example of such a use of theory.