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Chapter 9 Perverse Features and the Future of the Drive in Obsessional Neurosis DANIELLE BERGERON Some have read Freud to say that homosexuality is a perversion of the sexual drive. But a Lacanian, for whom clinical interest is aimed at structure , rather than at diagnoses based on phenomenological features, must ask whether homosexual fantasies or behaviors necessarily suggest a perverse structure.That is, do such phenomena necessarily serve to negate the symbolic phallic function of the Father and the Law of language?To what extent does one see in such fantasies or behaviors a structure where the logic of the organs and the return “to nature” perversely negate the logic of the signifier? In the clinic, one sees rather that many gay men present instead a hysterical or obsessional neurotic structure, and that it is simply the shift in social mores that has made it easier for these neurotics to act out their fantasy in a quest for satisfaction. The Case of Mr. Beauregard Mr. Beauregard, a middle-aged father, leaves his job, his wife, and his young children in order to “explore his homosexuality.” As a teenager, he had been excited by the sight of nude boys at summer camp; since that time, his sexual fantasies have continued to revolve around masculine 141 This material was first presented, in different form, at The Eighth Annual Interdisciplinary Conference of the International Federation for Psychoanalytic Education, October 1997, Ann Arbor Michigan. characters. His wife had guessed as much even prior their marriage, but they both wanted to raise a family, and for many years they found a sort of satisfaction there. After having moved to another country, he begins to go to gay bars looking for relief, thinking that he has at last the right to be happy. He then starts to live with a young man, hoping to find happiness by no longer denying what he felt to be a cornerstone of his identity. It is at this time that Mr. Beauregard comes to analysis to consult about a long-standing social inhibition that has recently become unbearable . He says that he has lived a solitary life since childhood and that he had always felt a panic when obliged to communicate with others in a group.This anxiety and his efforts to avoid such situations also forced him to quit a job as a librarian he’d held for many years. Moreover, having believed that assuming his homosexuality in sharing a daily and sexual life with another man would improve his relationships with others and bring him the satisfaction he expected from life, Mr. Beauregard now fears that these hopes are not to be fulfilled. Ironically, while he remains overcome by haunting homosexual fantasies (and some consequent guilt), what the man fears most and what he constantly avoids is having sex with his boyfriend. Indeed, he now finds all kinds of excuses to escape it and instead takes to compulsive activities that consume his nights, such as masturbating while looking at gay magazines or sitting alone in bars and looking at young men. On the one occasion where he went so far as fondling someone in a men’s restroom, he caught genital herpes and “was punished,” he says, “for having tried to materialize my fantasies.” All of which makes him feel sad, unsatisfied, and powerless. During the analysis, Mr. Beauregard discovers that his mother wished him to be polite, obedient, mild-mannered and kind, and she hoped he would become a priest. Now, in his adulthood, he finds himself insecure, sensitive to remarks, “femininely” emotional, and perfectionist. He lacks self-confidence, feels socially isolated, is anxious in love, and experiences a constant guilt. He recalls that his mother used to confide in him. She described his father as violent, and the boy felt specially loved by her— that she was not treating him as she did her other son. Nevertheless, he always sought his father’s approval, though his father preferred the boy’s more virile brother.Yet, until he turned five, Mr. Beauregard says he was “as aggressive as his father.” He adds: I then decided to become serious, to be on my mother’s side, to emulate her virtues, and to stop being aggressive. My father began to complain about my squeamishness. I often stayed at home with my mother instead of playing sports with other boys; I loved reading and was sex-oriented from my earliest years. 142 After Lacan [18.224.37.68] Project MUSE...

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