Helene Deutsch

“What we call 'normal' is a product of repression.”

“Femininity is not a static condition but a process of development.”

“The girl's psychic development is much more complicated and obscure than that of the boy.”

“The woman's passive-masochistic disposition is not an expression of an innate 'death instinct' but a result of her biologic destiny.”

“The fear of being abandoned is one of the deepest and most primitive fears of the human being.”

“Maternity, the greatest experience in a woman's life, is the source of her deepest frustrations as well as her greatest happiness.”

“The ego is a component of the psychic apparatus that is turned toward the outer world, is sensitive to stimuli, and functions as a protective shield against them.”

“The normal woman... finds her own ego in the identification with the loved man and the child.”

“The 'as if' personality results from an early identification with others, which serves as a substitute for genuine object relations.”

“The whole psychic life of the woman is dominated by the reproductive function.”