Speculum of the Other Woman

Rating:
Summary: Nice feminist critique of Freud, Plato, and others
Review: The first section is especially wonderful: a complete analysis of Freud's construction of women's sexuality and development. She has a great style with many a qwirk to keep you entertained. The second section includes free-form essays on Aristotle, Kant, Plato, Descartes and other representatives of the Western male philosophical canon. The last section is a complete analysis of Plato's Hystera. This is a good text for those of us who need to read the foundations of feminist thought . . . though some American feminists (such as myself) may find themselves annoyed with her "essentialism". Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: Sight Presence
Review: Those unfamiliar with Plato, Descartes, Freud and Lacan will find great challenges in understanding this rather poetic book. Irigary examines these figures in light of the "symbolic order" to detail phallocentricism in the development of Western thought in general as well as psychoanalysis, revealing what is, according to the author, the nature of feminine sexuality and gender identity. Reading this text, written by a former student of Lacan's expelled over ideological differences, was transforming and has left a permanent perspective from which to percieve and critique philosophical arguments as well as science, medicine, and psychotherapy.