The Bonds of Love: Psychoanalysis, Feminism, and the Problem of Domination

Why do people submit to authority and even derive pleasure from power others have over them? What is appeal of domination and submission, and why are they so prevalent in erotic life? Why is it so difficult for men and women to meet as equals? Why indeed do they continue to recapitulate positions of master and slave? In the Bonds of Love author makes use of feminist criticism and reinterpretations of psychoanalytic theory to consider anew problem of domination, of individual development, gender difference and authority. In her questioning of gender polarities, in which woman is object to male subject, she argues for a change which she describes as both modest and utopian - in disentangling bonds of love, we seek a mutual recognition of equal subjects which would lead to both personal and social transformation.