Did Freud Hate Women?

While Reading Slavoj Zizek's Sublime Object of Ideology I found quoted of Sigmund Freud the dubious statement "...women are impossible to bear, a source of eternal nuisance, but still, they are the best thing we have of their kind; without them it would be even worse. So if woman does not exist, man is perhaps simply a woman who thinks she does not exist."

Ifind this wildly interesting because Freud is supposed to be a chauvinist, but his statement applies equally to men: "...men are impossible to bear, a source of eternal nuisance, but still, they are the best thing we have of their kind; without them it would be even worse. So if man does not exist, woman is perhaps simply a man who thinks he does not exist." Jacques Lacan made an addendum to this statement that went "Woman is the symptom of man" which is again, equal to saying "Man is the symptom of woman" but also, "Woman is the fantasy of Man".

Zizek tells that in psychoanalysis personal enjoyment is bound up with personal suffering, in the sense that psychic displeasure or, the symptom, takes root in the inadequacy of the self as it relates the its surroundings. Conversely, fantasy as the object of personal pleasure, takes root in the inadequacy of surroundings as it relates to the self. Psychoanalysis then is the uncovering of the symptom to dissolve its corresponding fantasy. But, this symptom/fantasy conventionally returns because (another quote by Freud) "You must identify yourself with the place where your symptom already was; in all its pathology you will recognize the element which gives consistency to your being."

This means that at the root of our craziness lies the fundamental expression of who we are. And so, treatment of the symptom/fantasy is directed at the forms in which these expressions take place. If the opposite sex is the subject of our dreams and yet our worst nightmare, it is only because we are experiencing in them what is closest to ourselves: ourselves.

Thus I believe we can reformulate Freud's words (yet somewhat paradoxically) to say "woman is the greatest pleasure, a source of eternal joy, but still, she is the worst thing that has happened to us; if woman does exist, man is caught in her image, a plaything of self reflection". I think Freud had a healthy taste for cynicism about the way we see ourselves. Cynical, but not prejudiced. The whole idea is that without this mutual appropriation of the other for the purpose of becoming ourselves, the whole game is over; without the Other, there is neither One.