-
Sexuality, Psychoanalysis, and Philosophy –An Introduction
- Leuven University Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
9 Sexuality, Psychoanalysis, and Philosophy – an introduction Jens De Vleminck at the end of the nineteenth century, sexology emerged as a new sub-discipline within the biomedical sciences. The works of the first generation of sexologists, including richard von Krafft-ebing, albert moll, and albert von Schrencknotzing , were a major source of inspiration for the “young” Sigmund Freud (ellenberger, 1970; Sulloway, 1979). although these sexologists certainly did inspire him, however, Freud went beyond the then prevailing sexological approach. rather than limiting himself to the anatomy and physiology of the sexual apparatus, he explicitly tackled the issue of the place of sexuality in human life as such. This is most evident in his handling of the sexological tradition in his clinical work with hysterical patients. With Freud, the psychoanalytical account of human sexuality was elaborated with concepts articulating sexual reality from a different point of view. Psychoanalysis even produced some of the strongest criticisms of sexology, stressing the inevitable pains of sexuality. against the idea that there are no inherent difficulties barring the full enjoyment of a completely satisfactory sexual life, Freud argues that there is something intrinsically lacking in sexuality that prevents complete pleasure. in one of his latest papers, Freud writes: “There is always something lacking for complete discharge and satisfaction – en attendant toujours quelque chose qui ne venait point – and this missing part, the reaction of orgasm, manifests itself in equivalents in other spheres, in absences, outbreaks of laughing, weeping, and perhaps other ways. – once again infantile sexuality has fixed a model in this” (Freud, 1941, p. 300). hence, it comes as no surprise that some authors argue that Freud’s most radical claims were not about the unconscious, but concerned the profoundly ambivalent nature of human sexuality and its omnipresence in human thought and behaviour (laplanche, 1970, p. 27). From his earliest writings onward, psychoanalysis has been centrally involved with the complexity of human sexuality. in his Fragment of an Analysis of a Case of Hysteria (1905), Freud acknowledges: “i was further anxious to show that sexuality does not simply intervene, like a deus ex machina, on one single occasion, at some point in the working of the processes which characterize hysteria, but that it provides the motive power for every single symptom, and for every single manifestation of Figures_150810.indd 9 22/09/10 10:35 Jens de Vleminck 10 a symptom. The symptoms of the disease are nothing else than the patient’s sexual activity. a single case can never be capable of proving a theorem as general as this one; but i can only repeat over and over again – for i never find it otherwise – that sexuality is the key to the problem of psychoneurosis and of the neuroses in general. no one who disdains the key will ever be able to unlock the door. i still await news of the investi gations which are to make it possible to contradict this theorem or to limit its scope. What i have hitherto heard against it have been expressions of personal dislike or disbelief. to these it is enough to reply in the words of charcot: ‘ça n’empêche pas d’exister’” (Freud, 1905, p. 115). Freud’s most systematic account of human sexuality can be found in his Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality. in this text, he sketches an impressive panorama of the vicissitudes of human sexuality and of sexual psychopathology in particular. moreover, Freud sets out to overthrow contemporary conceptions of sexuality as exclusively biological, absent in childhood, and emerging after puberty. By broadening the concept of sexuality and extending human sexuality back into childhood, Freud also rejects the popular idea of a pregiven aim or object for the libido. many of his critics accused him of trying to get a grip on human nature by reducing it to the seemingly animalistic aspect of sexuality. however, from the beginning Freud took into account the complex and distinctly human nature of our sexuality, confronting us with the all encompassing impact of the “goddess libido” (mcGuire, 1974, p. 400). after Freud’s death in 1939, Theodor reik wrote: “Freud’s death does not mean the beginning of the end of psychoanalysis, as his foes aver, but rather the end of the beginning” (reik, 1940, p. 22). This is nowhere more true than in his psychoanalytical theorizing on human sexuality. Freud’s work brought about a revolution in sexual education, behaviour and mores. its impact is omnipresent in psychoanalytical authors such as Theodor...