Hite Research International

This page will preview some of the theories and research work currently being undertaken by Shere Hite.

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A New Emotional Landscape

Some say ‘human nature’ is a fixed phenomenon, that a new psychological-emotional landscape cannot be possible. They point to the Athenian playwright Sophocles or to Shakespeare, saying that their plays prove ‘Human nature has always been the same; all cultures are the same, humans love, hate, are jealous, greedy and fear each other..’

Yet isn’t this merely lazy justification of the status quo? Think of the antique (pre-sixth century) Greek myths and how hard it is for us to understand some of the myths’ stories in their original form. The archaeologist Marija Gimbutas has proposed a world-view for ‘pre-history’ that is quite different from the standard version ‘real-history-starts-with-the-Greeks, Sumerians-and-Egyptians’ – a history that extends 20,000 years further into the past, with a complex, sophisticated and lively artistic tradition – and, in all probability, a different emotional landscape.

A new emotional landscape is possible, even if one has never existed before.

Myth Psychology

When you are born, you are offered a variety of mythologies with which to write the scenario of your life. Which you pick depends on various psychological factors built into your individual situation and family (see Freud et al.)

My work is trying to redesign the entire package of available choices or mythologies on offer – not to re-write psychology (though it is, in part). Is a completely different set of scenarios possible?

The four Hite Reports and this series of articles try to question and redesign, re-imagine (on the basis of measuring the counterpoint between what people say they experience and what society says they should be experiencing, how they should interpret their experiences), the repertoire of lives we can have: are there new ways to interpret our experiences and emotions?

Inside most of us, an intense battle is raging between ‘traditional values’ and new beliefs. These beliefs as yet have unclear shapes and names, so here we will try to name some of them, turn a few sources on light on these new landscapes.

Underwater Frescoes of the Mind

Can we make a new psychological-emotional landscape?

People often prefer to claim that they have no myths; that myths are for more ‘stupid’ or ‘primitive’ people. Yet underlying the social system studied by sociologists, and the emotions studied by psychologists, lie myths of creation, myths of family, and myths of heroic behaviour. These archetypes, currently unacknowledged or called ‘instinct’, form the backdrop of our psyches and beliefs.

At present, the myths are undergoing change; a new psychological landscape is struggling to come into existence. In order for this to happen, and to take a part in defining the new landscape, it is important to understand these myths.

Slowly, my work has been endeavouring to discover the identity of some of these underwater ‘unconscious’ frescoes in our minds – the backdrop to our psyches and emotions.

Based on my research, I believe that a completely different emotional-psychological landscape is now trying to emerge. Part of our psychology has been resistant to change because a hidden layer in the psyche, an identity behind our psychologies (often mistakenly called ‘human-nature’), has not been analysed – which is what my work is trying to do. This hidden layer is composed of all the myths and stories that create the human emotional landscape as we know it. This is the terrain we meet when we are born, that we learn to take as our own.

Naming this terrain will allow a new landscape to emerge.

Just as the early Greeks and Romans saw themselves differently from the later Christians, we now see ourselves differently yet again.

These and future essays, culled from in-depth research with thousands of people, will provide glimpses of the new psychology emerging.

Dale Spender on Shere Hite - in Women As Revolutionary Agents of Change (1993)

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Biography

Shere Hite is an internationally recognised cultural historian and researcher. The Hite Report on Female Sexuality and The Hite Report on Male Sexuality, the first two of her monumental trilogy, have been translated into thirteen languages, and are used in courses at universities around the world. Her other books including , Women and Love: A Cultural Revolution in Progress, Women as Revolutionary Agents of Change: The Hite Report & Beyond, The Hite Report on the Family: Growing up under Patriarchy, Women with Women, and most recently, Sex and Business, combined with a prodigious array of articles, place her at the forefront of the psycho-sexual debates of our time.

Shere Hite holds two degrees in history, as well as a third in gender and politics, and is an active member of various cultural and scientific organisations, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Psychological Association, the American Historical Association, and the Society for Women in Philosophy. Hite earned her Ph.D. for her work on psycho-sexual identity as constructed inside families, this original research published as The Hite Report on the Family (1994, Bloomsbury).

Dr. Hite serves as Visiting Professor each year at Nihon University (Japan) in the Department of International Relations, lecturing on Gender and Culture (1992-2002). For many years, she was lecturer in female sexuality for New York University (1978-1988). She also lectures widely on psycho-sexual identity, including many universities such as Harvard, Oxford, the Sorbonne, Cambridge and University of Roma. Her present work continues to expand and increase our understanding of sexuality and psycho-sexual identity in personal and professional relationships.

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