The Reproduction of Mothering: Psychoanalysis and the Sociology of Gender by Nancy Chodorow

Published 1978 · 95,000 words · about 8 hours at an average pace · Essays & Criticism

How hard is The Reproduction of Mothering: Psychoanalysis and the Sociology of Gender to read?

The Reproduction of Mothering: Psychoanalysis and the Sociology of Gender scores 64 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it quite demanding. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.

Vocabulary: 62 out of 100
Object relations psychoanalytic vocabulary requiring some theoretical background.
Sentence structure: 58 out of 100
Abstraction: 72 out of 100
High theoretical integration of psychoanalysis and sociology.
Information density: 72 out of 100
Dense theoretical argument with sustained citation of clinical and sociological literature.
Narrative indirection: 15 out of 100
Systematic analytical argument rather than narrative.
Symbolic density: 15 out of 100
Analytical framework; limited symbolic register.
Ironic distance: 12 out of 100
Earnest feminist-psychoanalytic investigation.
Resolution withholding: 12 out of 100
The mechanism is explained clearly; reform is gestured toward.
Structural complexity: 35 out of 100
Three-part structure moving from theory to empirical argument to conclusions.

How The Reproduction of Mothering: Psychoanalysis and the Sociology of Gender is regarded

The Reproduction of Mothering: Psychoanalysis and the Sociology of Gender holds a literary regard score of 60 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.

About the author

Nancy Chodorow