Patriarchy and phantasy: a conception of psychoanalytic sociology

The nature versus nurture controversy in the history of the social sciences is compared with the heredity versus environment debate in the history of psychoanalysis. Generally, psychoanalysis addresses the question of human thought in contrast to the social disciplines, which examine human behavior. This division of science may be considered the representation of a fundamental dichotomy between internal (latent) and external (manifest) aspects characteristic of human existence. This universal duality is based on the division between the sexes, the union of which reproduces life. This paper attempts to draw attention to the common structure of the mind and society by showing that the same pattern of manifest and latent content exists within each entity. The manifest aspect of existence is reflected in patriarchal social structure and the latent aspect in the structure of unconscious phantasy. These aspects are dialectically interrelated in that patriarchy is the manifest form of phantasy and phantasy the latent form of patriarchal order. This model of the integration of psychoanalysis and sociology is based on the work of Juliet Mitchell, particularly Psychoanalysis and Feminism. Psychoanalytic sociology is defined as a discipline that investigates the relationship between mental life and social organization.