Copy of Theories of Desire
Published on Nov 29, 2015
From Freud to feminist and queer theory, in a few bite-sized nuggets.
MORE DECKS TO EXPLORE
PRESENTATION OUTLINE
A MAN SPANNING TWO ERAS
RAISED IN LATE-19TH CENTURY VIENNA
Note the classic architecture in the background, and the statue in the foreground - which, blends both nudity and a censoring fig-leaf covering.
Photo by othermore (other)
This was a time of intense contrasts: sexual promiscuity & traditional double-standards about "proper" morality existed side-by-side...
Photo by crystalmartel
THINK OF THE CLASSIC "VIRGIN/WHORE DICHOTOMY"
(& NOTE HOW IT ONLY APPLIES TO WOMEN)
Untitled Slide
Photo by rachelkramerbussel.com
Seriously, though: out of this environment came a trailblazing young Freud, attempting to take seriously the ailments of *women*as well as men, and to reconsider, radically, problems like "hysteria"
Photo by Internet Archive Book Images
MAJOR CONTRIBUTIONS
- The Unconscious: less a "discovery" than an elaboration; DYNAMIC
- Divisions of the psyche: ego, id & (later) super-ego
- Technique/treatment: from hypnosis to free associations to dream analysis; "talking cure"
- Dreams: evidence of unconscious psychic forces at play; need interpretation
- Sexuality...
Photo by ed_needs_a_bicycle
SEXUALITY
- its centrality to psychic life
- as motivating energy/life-force: libido
- its multi-valence: not just genital, but also oral, anal, & displaced onto fetish objects
- children having a sexuality, not just adults (most radical idea still!)
- often the root of neurosis comes from sexual experience, esp. in early childhood
SOME MORE IMPORTANT IDEAS
- All healthy, normal sexuality has an element of the 'perverse'
- Only enter into pathology when activities are exclusive or fixated
- Pleasure & procreation are not perfectly coincident...
- The sexual is not = the genital (former not confined to latter)
- Human nature is fundamentally bisexual--no 'pure' masculinity/femininity
Photo by torgman
"What I've said about femininity doesn't always sound friendly. It is incomplete. If you want to know more, look at your own experience of life..."
--Freud, 1933 lecture
In an age when women were seen as objects with no natural sexual feeling or autonomy of their own, Freud's attempt to truly listen to women, take their symptoms and ailments seriously, and give voice to them, make him a better candidate for proto-feminist than some kind of simple misogynist, as so many uninformed detractors (often fixated themselves on the one idea of "penis envy") have claimed. His limitations are far less vital than his innovations at the turn of the 20th century.
Photo by Paulosky_
MORE TO COME...
(THAT'S WHAT *SHE* SAID!)
