This exceptional collection of essays explores the persistence of misogyny: how it is woven into the fabric of our culture, our institutions, and our psyches. Building on her first book, Misogyny in Psychoanalysis, Michaela Chamberlain moves on from a conversation to a demand for action.
Drawing on her experiences as a psychotherapist, mother, and researcher, she uses psychoanalytic theory to examine what causes misogyny and how misogyny is internalised, enacted, and justified. Revisiting Freud’s case of Dora and Winnicott’s concept of the “good enough mother”, she explores how these foundational psychoanalytic ideas continue to echo in contemporary expectations placed on women – particularly around sexuality, care, and emotional labour. These essays bridge past and present, theory and lived experience, to ask what has really changed and include a much-needed update to Winnicott’s list of reasons why a mother hates her baby.
From online discussion forums to classical literature, from consulting room dynamics to cultural narratives, Chamberlain investigates how misogyny hides in plain sight, often disguised as common sense, tradition, or even progressive thinking. Her work questions who benefits from patriarchy, who is harmed, and how all of us – regardless of gender – are shaped by its assumptions.
Accessible yet deeply informed, On Resisting Women invites readers into a debate about how we think, how we feel, and how we might begin to loosen misogyny’s grip – not only on our systems, but on our inner worlds.
Adam Phillips, psychoanalyst and writer –
‘Once again, Michaela Chamberlain has written a lucid, intriguing, and far-reaching book on what psychoanalysis can do to and for women. The combination of scholarly research, wit, and clinical insight – written, as it is, with a remarkable lightness of touch and strikingly imaginative sympathy – is a tonic in the often desultory and earnest world of psychoanalytic writing. On Resisting Women, starting with its title, is a useful and inspiring work.’
Dr Jane M. Selby, Charles Sturt University; clinical psychologist; co-author of ‘Babies in Groups’ –
‘This is an important and concise book about the unwelcome pervasive misogyny of our culture. Trained in psychoanalysis, Michaela Chamberlain examines how it too sustains misogyny; both through its foundational texts and through what happens in therapy. Communication always has a sociopolitical context, and this cannot be escaped in any therapeutic alliance or its interpretations. Courageously, Chamberlain illustrates, through personal experiences, the need for changing the intransigent patriarchal cultures we are complicit in. Despite established criticisms of patriarchy in psychoanalysis, Chamberlain laments their continuing lack of integration into the training of therapists.’
Dr Jan McGregor Hepburn, psychoanalytic psychotherapist; psychotherapy trainer; former registrar, British Psychoanalytic Council –
‘In this lively and very readable book, Michaela Chamberlain sets another challenge to the world in general and the psychoanalytic world in particular. In a scholarly and human way, she lays bare not only the ubiquity of misogyny but its utter disavowal, even in places where otherwise disavowal is understood as a matter of pathology which requires investigation. She then takes the reader through some of the consequences for men and women of this loss of the equal attention to the lived experiences of women and mothers. This book will be of general interest and to trainers of future clinicians.’
Christopher Russell, psychoanalyst; faculty, Center for Modern Psychoanalytic Studies, NY –
‘On Resisting Women is a sober examination of how misogyny informs the praxis of psychoanalysis, from Freud’s treatment of Dora to contemporary institutional practices that silence women’s voices. A cri de cœur, Chamberlain implores us to examine the inheritances of the “misogynistic introject” which continue to be pernicious and corrosive. I recommend On Resisting Women as essential reading for clinicians and institutes committed to addressing the ongoing enactments of misogyny in our field.’
Helena Vissing, PsyD, Associate Professor, California Institute of Integral Studies; author of ‘Somatic Maternal Healing’ –
‘Michaela Chamberlain’s book is a profound testament to the paradox at the heart of psychoanalysis: that it is deeply haunted by misogyny, even as it offers some of our most incisive tools for unveiling and challenging it. But it requires a rare and radical form of courage to use psychoanalytic thinking to reveal the layers of misogyny not only in the world but also embedded within psychoanalysis itself. Chamberlain writes with precisely that courage.’