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The Body, Sexuality, and Sexual Difference

The Body, Sexuality, and Sexual Difference Freud’s discovery of psychoanalysis can be seen as a new discursive and conceptual arrangement which radically displaced the prevailing conceptual paradigms developed by the natural and historical sciences during the nineteenth century. These more familiar paradigms, however, continue to dominate the reception of psychoanalysis today, in the form of debates between those who see Freud’s legacy as anticipating arguments for the social and historical construction of sexuality, and those who see Freud and Lacan as maintaining a covert appeal to naturalism or essentialism, through their purportedly ahistorical and formalist arguments about sexuality. From a genealogical point of view, both these interpretations remain bound to the very paradigms that psychoanalysis was intended to displace. As a result, the conceptual distinctiveness of psychoanalysis tends to disappear in the very course of its reception. This problem can be seen in Freud himself, and Foucault was one of the first to diagnose this difficulty, in his work on Bataille and transgression. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Angelaki: Journal of Theoretical Humanities Taylor & Francis

The Body, Sexuality, and Sexual Difference

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The Body, Sexuality, and Sexual Difference

Abstract

Freud’s discovery of psychoanalysis can be seen as a new discursive and conceptual arrangement which radically displaced the prevailing conceptual paradigms developed by the natural and historical sciences during the nineteenth century. These more familiar paradigms, however, continue to dominate the reception of psychoanalysis today, in the form of debates between those who see Freud’s legacy as anticipating arguments for the social and historical construction of sexuality, and...
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Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Copyright
Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN
1469-2899
eISSN
0969-725X
DOI
10.1080/0969725X.2012.701051
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Freud’s discovery of psychoanalysis can be seen as a new discursive and conceptual arrangement which radically displaced the prevailing conceptual paradigms developed by the natural and historical sciences during the nineteenth century. These more familiar paradigms, however, continue to dominate the reception of psychoanalysis today, in the form of debates between those who see Freud’s legacy as anticipating arguments for the social and historical construction of sexuality, and those who see Freud and Lacan as maintaining a covert appeal to naturalism or essentialism, through their purportedly ahistorical and formalist arguments about sexuality. From a genealogical point of view, both these interpretations remain bound to the very paradigms that psychoanalysis was intended to displace. As a result, the conceptual distinctiveness of psychoanalysis tends to disappear in the very course of its reception. This problem can be seen in Freud himself, and Foucault was one of the first to diagnose this difficulty, in his work on Bataille and transgression.

Journal

Angelaki: Journal of Theoretical Humanities – Taylor & Francis

Published: Jun 1, 2012

Keywords: body; organism; sexuality; history of psychoanalysis; Freud; Charcot; Foucault

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