18 April 2023
This work is a follow-up on our paper on formal gender theory (FGT). Using the terminology and notations of FGT we highlight androgyny as the main source of an approach to gender theory which is termed analytical gender theory (AGT). We understand AGT as an integration of the contrasting views of Sandra Bem and John Archer, glued together with analytical intuitions of Carl Jung, and enriched with aspects of Maslow’s humanistic psychology. We propose gender triangularity as a reference to the methodology thus obtained. Gender triangularity is to be distinguished from various forms of mono-angular-gender gender theory of which the purely gender non-critical version of gender theory, the mono-angular perspective on matters of gender taking gender identity as the principal core, is an instance.
We contrast an AGT approach to gender theory with the gender non-critical version of FGT, a version of which we qualify as a pseudo-science. We qualify analytical psychology as a proto-science, whereby its incorporation in AGT creates some risk for the development of AGT. Hopefully the evidence based approach of John Archer compensates for that risk.