Genital
In the stages of psychosexual development listed by Freud, the genital stageis the last stage in the series, coming after the two pregenital stages (the oral stage and the anal stage).
The genital stage first arises between the ages of three and five (the infantile genital organization or phallic phase) and is then interrupted by the latency period, before returning at puberty (the genital stage proper).
Freud defined this stage as the final "complete organization" of the libido, a synthesis of the previously anarchic "polymorphous perversity" of the pregenital stages.[1]
Because of this, the concept of 'genitality' came to represent a privileged value in psychoanalytic theory after Freud, coming to represent a stage of full psychosexual maturity.
Lacan rejects most psychoanalytic theory concerning the genital stage, genital love, etc., calling it an "absurd hymn to the harmony of the genital."[2]
According to Lacan, there is nothing harmonious about genitality.
The genital stage
The stages of psychosexual development are conceived by Lacan not as natural phases of biological maturation but as forms of demand which are structured retroactively.[3]
In the oral and anal stages, desire is eclipsed by demand, and it is only in the genital stage as a third moment which comes after the oral and anal stages.[4]
However, Lacan's discussion of this stage focuses on what Freud referred to as the infantile genital organization (also known as the phallic phase); a stag ewhen the child knows only one sexual organ (the male one) and passes through the castration complex.
Thus the genital phase is only thinkabloe, Lacan emphasizes, insofar as it is marked by the sign of castration; "genital realization" can only be achieved on condition that the subject first assumes his own castration.[5]
Furhtermore, Lacan insists that even when the polymorphous perverse sexuality of the pregential phases comes under the domination of the genital organization, this does not mean that pregenital sexuality is abolished.
The most archaic aspirations of the child are... a nucleus that is never completely resolved under some primacy of genitality.[6]
He therefore rejects the concept of a final stage of synthesis; synthesis is not possible for human beings, in Lacan's view, since human subjectivity is essentially and irremediably divided.
The genital drive
The genital drive is not listed by Lacan as one of the partial drives.
Given that Lacan argues that every drive is a partial drive, his refusal to include the genital drive among the partial drives is tantamount to questioning its existence.
In 1964, Lacan makes this explicit.
He writes: "the partial drive, if it exists, is not at all articulated like the other drives.[7]
Unlike the other drives, the genital drive (if it exists) "finds its form" on the side of the Other.[8]
Furthermore, there is no "genital object" that would correspond to a supposed genital drive.
Genital love
See also
References
- ↑ Freud. 1940a. SE XXIII. p.155
- ↑ Lacan, Jacques. Écrits: A Selection. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Tavistock Publications, 1977. p.245
- ↑ Lacan, Jacques. Le Séminaire. Livre VIII. Le transfert, 1960-61. Ed. Jacques-Alain Miller. Paris: Seuil, 1991. p.238-46
- ↑ Lacan, Jacques. Le Séminaire. Livre VIII. Le transfert, 1960-61. Ed. Jacques-Alain Miller. Paris: Seuil, 1991. p.268
- ↑ Lacan, Jacques. Le Séminaire. Livre IV. La relation d'objet, 19566-57. Ed. Jacques-Alain Miller. Paris: Seuil, 1991. p.219
- ↑ Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar. Book VII. The Ethics of Psychoanalysis, 1959-60. Trans. Dennis Porter. London: Routledge, 1992. p.93
- ↑ Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar. Book XI. The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, 1964. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Hogarth Press and Institute of Psycho-Analysis, 1977. p.189
- ↑ Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar. Book XI. The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, 1964. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Hogarth Press and Institute of Psycho-Analysis, 1977. p.189
