In this article, I argue that Freud's interest in extraordinary cultural phenomena such as religion and art can be understood from the idea that psychoanalysis is fundamentally a pathoanalysis of ...human existence. In his earlier writings on hysteria and the theory of sexuality, Freud points out that the study of the psychopathologies is the best and maybe only way to understand the psychic life of human beings and consequently of a specific group of cultural products that cannot only be explained in functional terms. It is also argued, however, that Freud never fully explored to the full potential of this pathoanalytic approach to cultural phenomena, because of the increasing domination of the Oedipus complex and a developmental perspective in his theories. In the final section of this article, the potential of a pathoanalysis of religion is further explored and offered as a promising field of research.
Judgments pertaining to sexuality can often serve as a mirror, reflecting the cultural norms and values of a specific country or region. In the current study, we employ provincial panel data to ...examine the temporal and spatial variances in the attitudes of the Chinese populace towards “same-sex sexuality.” Our findings indicate that the Chinese public’s stance on same-sex sexual behavior is equivocal. It is neither wholly embraced nor entirely rejected. While there has been a gradual progression towards a more accepting attitude towards this form of sexual behavior, the level of tolerance remains relatively conservative in comparison to international standards. Moreover, significant regional disparities are evident. To further investigate these regional differences in attitudes towards sexuality in China, we employ a panel regression analysis with fixed time effects. The outcomes of this study provide substantial evidence in support of the social construction of sexuality. That is, the shifts in the sexual attitudes of the Chinese populace can be attributed both to the subconscious influence of traditional Chinese culture and the shaping effects of modernity.
Dans cet article, j’aborde des questions concernant l’épistémologie historique de la sex research et la théorie de la sexualité, et l’impact de la rupture épistémologique de Kinsey par rapport à la ...sexologie et à la théorie freudienne de la sexualité – ainsi que les conséquences préjudiciables tant pour la théorie freudienne que pour le programme de recherche de Kinsey. Les Rapports Kinsey ont remis en question l’ordre cognitif du domaine de la recherche sur la sexualité en général et en tant que « discipline ». Un tel état, selon Thomas Kuhn, marque souvent le début d’une révolution scientifique et conduit à un processus de reconstruction et à la formulation d’approches théoriques et empiriques radicalement nouvelles, débouchant ainsi sur un nouveau paradigme dominant. Cela n’a pas eu lieu dans le sillage des Rapports Kinsey. La réflexion psychanalytique originale sur la sexualité s’est pratiquement arrêtée et, bien que Kinsey ait été considéré comme le successeur de la « sexologie empirique » à la façon de Havelock Ellis, peu, voire aucune de ses innovations théoriques et méthodologiques (telles que le concept mesurable d’exutoire sexuel, la méthode d’interview et l’échelle de Kinsey) n’ont été adoptées par ses successeurs. Non seulement l’approche de Kinsey n’a pas réussi à remplacer la théorie freudienne par une théorie sophistiquée, mais elle n’a pas non plus réussi à établir une tradition de recherche viable ou des descriptions empiriques plus solides du comportement sexuel de l’individu. La rencontre entre le paradigme freudien et le programme de recherche de Kinsey a gravement porté préjudice aux deux parties. Aucune des deux parties n’a semblé reconnaître que l’incommensurabilité des deux approches constituait le véritable défi scientifique.
In this paper, I will take up questions about the historical epistemology of sex research and the theory of sexuality, and about the impact of Kinsey's epistemological break with sexology and the Freudian theory of sexuality — and of the damaging results for both Freudian theory and Kinsey's research program. The Kinsey Reports challenged the cognitive order of the field of research on sexuality in general and as a “discipline”. Such a state, according to Thomas Kuhn, often marks the start of a scientific revolution and leads to a process of rebuilding and the formulation of dramatically new theoretical and empirical approaches, thus issuing in a new dominant paradigm. This did not take place in the wake of the Kinsey Reports. Original psychoanalytic thinking about sexuality virtually stopped, and while Kinsey was seen as the successor of ‘empirical sexology’ a la Havelock Ellis, few if any of his analytical innovations (such as the measurable concept of sexual outlet, the ‘Kinsey’ interview, and the Kinsey scale) were adopted by his successors. The Kinsey approach not only failed to replace Freudian theory with any sophisticated theory of its own, but it also failed to establish a viable research tradition or a more robust empirical account of the individual's sexual behavior. The encounter between the Freudian paradigm and the Kinsey research program had severely damaged both sides. Neither side seemed to recognize that the basic incommensurability of the two approaches was the real scientific challenge.
In this paper, I will take up questions about the historical epistemology of sex research and the theory of sexuality, and about the impact of Kinsey's epistemological break with sexology and the ...Freudian theory of sexuality — and of the damaging results for both Freudian theory and Kinsey's research program. The Kinsey Reports challenged the cognitive order of the field of research on sexuality in general and as a “discipline”. Such a state, according to Thomas Kuhn, often marks the start of a scientific revolution and leads to a process of rebuilding and the formulation of dramatically new theoretical and empirical approaches, thus issuing in a new dominant paradigm. This did not take place in the wake of the Kinsey Reports. Original psychoanalytic thinking about sexuality virtually stopped, and while Kinsey was seen as the successor of ‘empirical sexology’ a la Havelock Ellis, few if any of his analytical innovations (such as the measurable concept of sexual outlet, the ‘Kinsey’ interview, and the Kinsey scale) were adopted by his successors. The Kinsey approach not only failed to replace Freudian theory with any sophisticated theory of its own, but it also failed to establish a viable research tradition or a more robust empirical account of the individual's sexual behavior. The encounter between the Freudian paradigm and the Kinsey research program had severely damaged both sides. Neither side seemed to recognize that the basic incommensurability of the two approaches was the real scientific challenge.
Through a re-examination of Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (1905), this paper reveals a fundamental tension in Freud's thinking on the nature of the individual and of his sexuality. In this ...text Freud portrays the individual and sexuality as inherently object-related and at the same time as inherently independent of such relatedness. The way in which Freud presents these contradictory ideas suggests that he was not merely undecided on object-relatedness and sexuality but rather that the contradiction was integral to this thinking. The paper offers an explanation of the meaning of this contradiction, of why it has been neglected in the analytic literature, and of some implications for contemporary psychoanalysis and its approach to sexuality.
The neosexual revolution Sigusch, V
Archives of sexual behavior,
08/1998, Volume:
27, Issue:
4
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
The affluent societies of the Western world have witnessed a tremendous cultural and social transformation of sexuality during the 1980s and 1990s, a process I refer to as the neosexual revolution. ...Up to now, this recoding and reassessment of sexuality has proceeded rather slowly and quietly. Yet both its real and its symbolic effects may indeed be more consequential than those brought about in the course of the rapid, noisy sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s. The neosexual revolution is dismantling the old patterns of sexuality and reassembling them anew. In the process, dimensions, intimate relationships, preferences, and sexual fragments emerge, many of which had been submerged, were unnamed, or simply did not exist before. In general, sexuality has lost much of its symbolic meaning as a cultural phenomenon. Sexuality is no longer the great metaphor for pleasure and happiness, nor is it so greatly overestimated as it was during the sexual revolution. It is now widely taken for granted, much like egotism or motility. Whereas sex was once mystified in a positive sense--as ecstasy and transgression, it has now taken on a negative mystification characterized by abuse, violence, and deadly infection. While the old sexuality was based primarily upon sexual instinct, orgasm, and the heterosexual couple, neosexualities revolve predominantly around gender difference, thrills, self-gratification, and prosthetic substitution. From the vast number of interrelated processes from which neosexualities emerge, three empirically observable phenomena have been selected for discussion here: the dissociation of the sexual sphere, the dispersion of sexual fragments, and the diversification of intimate relationships. These processes go hand in hand with the commercialization and banalization of sexuality. They are looked upon as being controlled individually through the mechanisms of a fundamentally egotistical consensus morality. In conformity with the general principles at work in society, the outcome of the neosexual revolution could be described as self-disciplined and self-optimized lean sexuality.
Western cultures have witnessed a tremendous cultural and social transformation of sexuality in the years since the sexual revolution. Apart from a few public debates and scandals, the process has ...moved along gradually and quietly. Yet its real and symbolic effects are probably much more consequential than those generated by the sexual revolution of the sixties. Sigusch refers to the broad-based recoding and reassessment of the sexual sphere during the eighties and nineties as the "neosexual revolution". The neosexual revolution is dismantling the old patterns of sexuality and reassembling them anew. In the process, dimensions, intimate relationships, preferences and sexual fragments emerge, many of which had submerged, were unnamed or simply did not exist before. In general, sexuality has lost much of its symbolic meaning as a cultural phenomenon. Sexuality is no longer the great metaphor for pleasure and happiness, nor is it so greatly overestimated as it was during the sexual revolution. It is now widely taken for granted, much like egotism or motility. Whereas sex was once mystified in a positive sense - as ecstasy and transgression, it has now taken on a negative mystification characterized by abuse, violence and deadly infection. While the old sexuality was based primarily upon sexual instinct, orgasm and the heterosexual couple, neosexualities revolve predominantly around gender difference, thrills, self-gratification and prosthetic substitution. From the vast number of interrelated processes from which neosexualities emerge, three empirically observable phenomena have been selected for discussion here: the dissociation of the sexual sphere, the dispersion of sexual fragments and the diversification of intimate relationships. The outcome of the neosexual revolution may be described as "lean sexuality" and "self-sex".
A KLEINIAN THEORY OF SEXUALITY Lubbe, Trevor
British journal of psychotherapy,
August 2008, Volume:
24, Issue:
3
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
The author examines claims made some years ago by Green (1995), but still referenced today by others, that the theoretical and clinical emphasis given by British Object Relations theorists – Balint, ...Fairbairn, Winnicott and especially Klein – to the pregenital dimension of the mother–infant relationship has reduced the importance of sexuality in psychoanalysis resulting in a desexualization of classical theory and practice. The author notes that, except for Parsons (2000) and Litowitz (2002), these charges have gone unchallenged and he wishes to contribute to this ‘debate’ by presenting a Kleinian theory of sexuality. Meltzer's (1973) book Sexual States of Mind will be used as a primer for such a theory since the explicit goal of this text is a structural revision of psychoanalytic sexual theory from an Object Relations perspective. Through Meltzer's concept of ‘sexual states of mind’, and his sub‐theory of ‘aesthetic reciprocity’ as a theory of primal seduction, the author will demonstrate how the diverse features of infantile and adult sexuality are given a very detailed, comprehensive understanding within an Object Relations paradigm. In fact, if there has been a turning away from sexuality in psychoanalysis, as Green and others contend, it is not because of Object Relations theory but because of the great complexity brought to our understanding of sexuality by Object Relations paradigms. The author presents this paper as a tribute to Donald Meltzer who died in August 2004.
Three crises facing sexology Tiefer, L
Archives of sexual behavior,
08/1994, Volume:
23, Issue:
4
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Three crises facing sexology are described: what is happening with sexuality in the culture, what is happening with sexuality in academia, and what is happening with sexuality in medicine. In each ...case, the response of sexology has been benign neglect, disinterest, and a failure to understand the profound implications of these challenges for a field that considers itself the premiere source of accurate facts and comprehensive theories about sexuality. As a consequence we are losing control of our subject matter, and we are losing our professional legitimacy. A wake-up call is offered for sexologists to become more knowledgeable, for our paradigms and organizations to become more inclusive, and for our research methods to become more sophisticated.
PDF
