Psychoanalytic Approach to the Study of Misandry

The study explores the problem of misandry, which is relevant for social and interpersonal relationships, using the optics of psychoanalytic theory. The relevance of the study is due to the small number of psychoanalytic reflections and discussions on the phenomenon of misandry. The authors demonstrate that misandry in psychoanalytic practice is not a patient complaint and not a primary pathopsychological problem, but a manifestation in objective reality of a combination of clinical pictures of various, well-studied psychoanalytic pathomorphoses. Misandry, as a phenomenon of man-hating, is implicit and manifests itself indirectly, through male excess mortality, a pronounced decrease in male life expectancy, and negative health consequences. In interpersonal relationships, misandry manifests itself in discriminatory statements and practices, in the form of reproaches addressed to men for inconsistency with the stereotypical gender-role identification of a “real” man, worthlessness, passivity, and unjustified expectations. Stress induced by a feeling of inadequacy to the ideal of a “real man” pushes men to addictive and life-threatening behavior strategies, psychosomatization, reduces sexual function, leading men to mental self-castration. The practices of raising boys in frequent, incomplete and dysfunctional families are accompanied by the undivided power of the mother, overprotection, the impossibility of separation and the acquisition of one’s own sexuality. In adulthood, such an anamnesis can cause inverted disharmonious relationships and the implementation of life-threatening scenarios. The authors believe that the alertness of a psychoanalytically oriented specialist to the identification of specific misandric signs in the patient’s reality should lead to deep therapeutic work with aspects of the unconscious world, aimed at correcting infantile deviations and restoring the possibility of normal living of the main unconscious processes.