October 19, 2009
8:30 pm

Melitta and Otto Sperling Memorial Lecture
Female Exhibitionism: - Identification, Competition and Camaraderie

Lecturers:  Deanna Holtzman, PhD & Nancy Kulish, PhD

Location:  Einhorn Auditorium, Lenox Hill Hospital, 131 East 76th Street, New York, NY

Abstract
The ancient figure of Baubo plays a pivotal role in the Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone with an exhibitionistic act that brings Demeter out of her depression. The Baubo episode raises questions about the meaning of female exhibitionism, suggesting divergences from traditional psychoanalytic conceptualizations as either a perversion or a compensation for the lack of a penis. The authors argue that female exhibitionism is not necessarily perverse, not necessarily or even usually based on castration anxiety and propose a divergent line of development for female exhibitionism, which would articulate pleasure in the female body and its sexual and reproductive functions. They find that female exhibitionism frequently reflects triangular/Persephonal or “oedipal” scenarios with intense desires to attract the male, identification and/or competition with the mother, camaraderie with other women involving a sense of power in the female body and its capacities, as well as underlying homoerotic impulses.  The authors present clinical data from child and adult cases which illustrate these Baubo-like aspects.