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^ The Neurobiology of the Obscene: Henry Miller and Tourette Syndrome David B. Morris Instead of talking about God, I talked about sex. Sex replaced God really, in a way. That may appear sacrilegious, but ... I think it's simply a case of substituting one for the other. —Henry Miller1 Recently in upstate New York, in the town of Guilderland, a uniformed officer walked into a music store and hand-delivered a letter from Police Chief James R. Murley. The letter explained that the store's owner faced possible arrest under New York state law for selling materials considered obscene. It seems a thirty-seven-year-old hairdresser had complained to police after her teenaged daughter purchased two tapes by a CaUfornia "gangster" rap group. The New York Times described the tapes as containing abundant "racial epithets, vulgarities and descriptions of sexual acts."2 The obscene, of course, is that which ought not to be spoken. A paradox lurks here, because obscenities are among the most common features of human speech. Yet in order to discuss the obscene—rather than simply to utter obscenities—we must self-consciously and deliberately enter into its domain, and this is an act that scholars have mostly avoided. Consequently, very little is known about the obscene, and what is known mostly lies scattered in odd corners of speciaUzed or somewhat disreputable journals.3 My aim is to confront, to explore, and, above all, to integrate; the approach might best be described by the awkward if familiar term biopsychosocial.4 A biopsychosocial approach should not yield merely parfaitlike layers of information. Human biological structure, psychological development , and cultural systems interact through complicated feedback loops. Cultural myths about cancer or pain, for example, may influence Literature and Medicine 12, no. 2 (Fall 1993) 194-214 © 1993 by The Johns Hopkins University Press David B. Morris 195 a patient's psychological state, which, in turn, may affect the immunological and endocrine systems, triggering the release of specific hormones or neurotransmitters. I cannot fully explore such interactions because too much about the obscene remains unknown. My hope, however , is ultimately to subvert a linear discussion and to show that the obscene achieves its ineradicable place in human life by weaving together powerful elements of our biology, psychology, and culture. The truth is that, even when conservative senators face off against the National Endowment for the Arts, America no longer witnesses the epic battles over censorship that engaged modernist writers such as D. H. Lawrence and Henry Miller. The question of whether pornography constitutes or incites violence against women is certainly important, but the pornographic and the obscene (although they often overlap) are clearly not identical. Moreover, the once potent conflicts about obscenity have been transformed mostly into occasions for poUtical posturing and bureaucratic compromise: a back-room deal over funding, the voluntary use of warning labels, election-year attacks. Even the Guilderland police force has learned to speak a judicious, conciliatory, pubUc-relations jargon . "We're certainly not looking to violate the First Amendment," Chief Murley insists.5 The dilemma, as subsequent reports from Guilderland make plain, is that many individuals and communities no longer seem to know what constitutes the obscene.6 Recent euphemisms such as adult, explicit, X-rated, and hard-core have come to hold a secure place in the vocabulary of consumer culture. These are big changes. A culture where people no longer understand what constitutes the obscene has severed its ties with the past in a particularly dramatic way. Although many today are glad to abandon the old world of official censors, others (Uke the Guilderland hairdresser and poUce chief) feel angry or confused about living in a culture where nothing seems to count as obscene. The tacit social decision that shrinks obscenity to little more than an annoying issue of law and pubKc relations has real consequences. Obscenity, I believe, is something that cannot be sidestepped or legislated out of consciousness. Rather, however much it may change across cultures and times, the obscene constitutes a fundamental and enduring category of human experience that, more than ever, needs to be understood. Certainly there are formidable problems in seeking to understand the obscene—rather than...

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