Jean Baker Miller in her Toward a New Psychology of Women begins with the indication that there is a new spirit among women today, a spirit that is collective and cooperative. The issue Miller sees as paramount is the issue of difference and how people behave toward those who are different from themselves. The idea of differences suggests, though it may not require, the idea of inequality and the idea of domination versus subordination. The dominants often suggest a number of untruths about subordinates, and Miller suggests that conflict is inevitable between unequal groups. She then turns to the issue of conflict and how it has been manifested in the past as covert conflict and as closed conflict. Conflict is open between equals and closed between non-equals:
Within a framework of inequality the existence of conflict is denied and the means to engage openly in conflict are excluded. Further, inequality itself creates additional factors that skew any interaction and prevent open engagement around real differences (13).
The dominant-subordinate relationship of interest to Miller is the male-female relationships, and she tries to get at the nature of the inequality in that relationship. These relationships involve closed conflict and a good deal of deception and manipulation. Open conflict is initiated when subordinates do not accept their place as inferior or secondary, and this can lead to discomfort, anxiety, and more serious reactions. To avoid this, says Miller, women are encouraged not to explore and express their needs because this would threaten severe conflict not only with men but with social institutions, and they are also encouraged to "transform" their own needs and to see those needs as identical to the needs of others, such as men or children.
Miller finds that psychoanalytic theory emphasizes deeper issues of vulnerability, weakness, and dependency, and psychoanalysis provides a way of addressing certa...