Juliet Mitchell, Lady Goody (born 4 October 1940) is a British

psychoanalyst PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: and is a set of theories and techniques of research to discover unconscious processes and their influence on conscious thought, emotion and behaviour. Based on dream interpretation, psychoanalysis is also a talk th ...

, socialist feminist, research professor and author.

Early life and education

Mitchell was born in

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

, New Zealand, in 1940, and then moved to England in 1944, where she stayed with her grandparents in the

Midlands The Midlands is the central region of England, to the south of Northern England, to the north of southern England, to the east of Wales, and to the west of the North Sea. The Midlands comprises the ceremonial counties of Derbyshire, Herefor ...

. She attended St Anne's College, Oxford, where she received a degree in English in 1962, as well as doing

postgraduate Postgraduate education, graduate education, or graduate school consists of academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications usually pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate (bachelor' ...

work. She taught

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world. The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian languages, Anglo-Frisian d ...

from 1962 to 1970 at Leeds University and Reading University. Throughout the 1960s, Mitchell was active in leftist politics, and was on the editorial committee of the journal ''

New Left Review The ''New Left Review'' is a British bimonthly journal, established in 1960, which analyses international politics, the global economy, social theory, and cultural topics from a leftist perspective. History Background As part of the emergin ...

''.

Career

''Women: The Longest Revolution''

Mitchell's article "Women: The Longest Revolution", in the ''

'' (1966), was an original synthesis of Simone de Beauvoir, Frederich Engels, Viola Klein, Betty Friedan and other analysts of women's oppression.

The Cambridge University Centre for Gender Studies

She is a fellow professor of Psychoanalysis at

Jesus College, Cambridge Jesus College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Jesus College was established in 1496 on the site of the twelfth-century Benedictine nunnery of St Radegund's Priory, Cambridge, St ...

, and founded the Centre for Gender Studies at

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. In 2010, she was appointed director of the Expanded Doctoral School in Psychoanalytic Studies at the Psychoanalysis Unit of

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

(UCL).

''Psychoanalysis and Feminism''

Mitchell is best known for her book ''Psychoanalysis and Feminism: Freud,

Reich ( ; ) is a German word whose meaning is analogous to the English word " realm". The terms and are respectively used in German in reference to empires and kingdoms. In English usage, the term " Reich" often refers to Nazi Germany, also ca ...

, Laing and Women'' (1974), in which she tried to reconcile

psychoanalysis PsychoanalysisFrom Greek language, Greek: and is a set of theories and techniques of research to discover unconscious mind, unconscious processes and their influence on conscious mind, conscious thought, emotion and behaviour. Based on The Inte ...

and

feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

at a time when many considered them incompatible.

Peter Gay Peter Joachim Gay ( né Fröhlich ; June 20, 1923 – May 12, 2015) was a German-American historian, educator, and author. He was a Sterling Professor of History at Yale University and former director of the New York Public Library's Center for ...

considered it "the most rewarding and responsible contribution" to the feminist debate on Freud, both acknowledging and rising beyond Freud's male chauvinism in its analysis. Mitchell saw Freud's asymmetrical view of masculinity and femininity as reflecting the realities of patriarchal culture, and sought to use his critique of femininity to critique patriarchy itself. By insisting on the utility of Freud (particularly in a Lacanian reading) for feminism, she opened the way for further critical work on psychoanalysis and gender. She was an Andrew Dickson White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University from 1993 to 1999.

Bibliography

Monographs

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Edited books

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References

External links

"Women: The Longest Revolution" by Juliet Mitchell (1966)

Jesus College, University of Cambridge profile

UCL profile

Women's Rights: Radical Change
– video of Mitchell appearing in a BBC debate first televised in 1974
A Conversation with Juliet Mitchell

Interviewed by Alan Macfarlane 6 May 2008 (video)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mitchell, Juliet 1940 births Academics of the University of Cambridge Academics of the University of Leeds Academics of the University of Reading Academics of University College London Alumni of St Anne's College, Oxford British feminist writers British psychoanalysts British socialist feminists Fellows of Jesus College, Cambridge Fellows of the British Academy Feminism and psychoanalysis Feminist psychologists Feminist studies scholars Living people New Left New Zealand emigrants to the United Kingdom Wives of knights