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Psychosomatic Medicine 1:245-270 (1939)
© 1939 American Psychosomatic Society

The Correlations Between Ovarian Activity and Psychodynamic Processes: I. The Ovulative Phase

THERESE BENEDEK M.D.1 and BORIS B. RUBENSTEIN M.D., Ph.D.2

1 Institute for Psychoanalysis, Chicago, Illinois, and the Laboratory of Anatomy and Associated Foundations, Western Reserve University
2 A Fellow of the Rockefeller Foundation

We have presented and discussed the psychological and physiological material of that part of the menstrual cycle which centers about ovulation: the preovulative, ovulative and postovulative periods. The presentation of material of the premenstrual-menstrual phase will occur in the second part of this publication. We present above a graphic summary of the ovulative phase of the cycle of one of our subjects, G.S. Jan. 15-30 as a type of all cycles in which ovulation occurs.

Careful study of vaginal smears and basal body-temperatures on the one hand, and of the psychoanalytic records on the other, led us to infer the correlations presented in the following diagrams. In the light of the foregoing material, the diagrams are self-explanatory.

The content of these two diagrams may be repeated shortly in the following correlations:

The oestrogenous phase of the cycle corresponds to an emotional condition characterized by active heterosexual libido. This appears normally as a wish for heterosexual gratification but it may turn into aggression toward the man or into a fearful defensive attitude. The psychological material during this phase of the cycle reflects the psychodynamic aspects of the relationship to man.

The function of the corpus luteum corresponds to the erotization of the female body. In this phase of the cycle the libido is turned from the outer world toward the individual which appears more passive and dependent. The psychological material during the stage of the corpus luteum reflects the erotization of the female body and the preparation for motherhood.

The ovulation is characterized by sudden decrease of the oestrogenous activity and by the influx of the narcissistic erotization according to the greater activity of lutein hormones. Emotionally this state is mainly characterized by the relaxation of the pre-ovulative tension which was caused by the conflicting tendencies between the increased oestrone and incipient lutein activity.

Note:

This work was in part supported by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to the Brush Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio.




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Copyright © 1939 by the American Psychosomatic Society