Psychoanalysis and Sexual Difference

Some of his most innovative ideas of the 1920s Freud regarded as "speculations" or "working hypotheses" worth considering, although not necessarily sustained by previous psychoanalytical theory. Focusing on such hypotheses, Herbert Marcuse in Eros and Civilization (1957) sought to develop the "philosophy of psychoanalysis" implicit in Freud's theory of man. In Marcuse's interpretation, issues such as the revaluation of fantasy and the aesthetic dimension, the redefinition of progress, and the reassessment of the role of play in a non-repressive culture define the core of Freud's emancipatory potential.

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Despite the centrality of Eros in his book, Marcuse made no serious effort to revisit Freud's theory of sexual difference, whose unexamined premises undermined the libertarian tendencies at work in the psychoanalytical conception of man. Marcuse's evasion of the issue is all the more surprising, because he could have easily recalled that, in the formative years of psychoanalysis, Freud's contemporary Magnus Hirschfeld had propounded a theoretical alternative to the disjunctive scheme with which psychoanalysis operates.

Although familiar with Hirschfeld's work, Freud never acknowledged the actual relevancy of his "doctrine of sexual intermediaries" that asserted the permanent intersexual condition of all human beings and that intended to replace the traditional sexual binary with a framework of sexual plurality in which each individual is marked by a unique sexuality.

It is not by chance that Hirschfeld's insights appear to necessitate the sort of critical readings of the Freudian corpus proposed mainly in the areas of feminism, , and studies. Once the sexual Other is capable of being conceptualized in a framework of intersexual differences beyond the male/female scheme, the unconscious resources of sexuality can be set free to inform the cultural project of non-repressive sublimation.

A small German-speaking country in middle Europe, Austria is now home to a thriving glbtq subculture.

Although until recently rejected by most sexologists as a distinct sexual identity, bisexuality is gradually becoming recognized and studied as such.

In recent years there has been a push for glbtq-sensitive counselor training and glbtq-affirmative counseling, which, although occurring slowly and encountering resistance, marks a significant move in a positive direction.

Glbtq identity development has not yet been fully integrated into mainstream theories of psychological development, but recent work promises to further our understanding of the life experiences of glbtq people.

The earliest etiologies--or theories of causation--of homosexuality date from European antiquity, but the search for a universal etiology has intensified as homosexual behavior has come under the scrutiny of science.

With major periodic setbacks, over the last two centuries German-speaking authors have gradually developed a gay and lesbian positive literature.

While Germany, until recently, never officially accepted or welcomed members of the glbtq community, German culture and homosexuality have a long and significant history.

The term "homosexuality," coined in 1869, with "heterosexuality" as its opposite, has led to a binary concept that oversimplifies the complexity of human sexual behavior.

Patriarchy, literally "the rule of the fathers," is a social system in which men hold positions of power and women are oppressed and glbtq people are treated negatively.

Psychoanalysis, which began as a therapeutic procedure, ultimately became one of the most powerful methods of cultural analysis and critique of the twentieth-century.

Psychotherapy, the clinical process of treating mental and emotional health problems, has recently been energized by a movement to depathologize homosexuality and to enhance the dignity and self-respect of glbtq clients.

Reparative therapy is a dangerously misguided attempt, supported by homophobic religious organizations, to change a person's sexual orientation from homosexual to heterosexual.

Sexual orientation indicates erotic attraction, whether toward people of the same gender (homosexual), the opposite gender (heterosexual), or both (bisexual).

Although the myth of Narcissus was originally intended as a moral fable against excessive pride, Narcissus has functioned in the arts as a symbol of same-sex passion, as well as of masturbation and effeminacy.

The capital of Austria, Vienna is also the country's largest city, as well as its political, economic, and cultural center, and the undisputed hub of Austrian gay and lesbian life.

Although she did not explicitly identify herself as a lesbian, Anna Freud, youngest daughter of Sigmund Freud and herself a psychoanalyst, was decidedly not heterosexual in any typical sense.

German-born Magnus Hirschfeld deserves recognition as a significant theorist of sexuality and the most prominent advocate of homosexual emancipation of his time.

The carefully detailed case studies of nineteenth-century psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing shed light on the sexual habits of a wide spectrum of men and women.

One of the greatest painters in the history of art and an outstanding empirical scientist, Leonardo was haunted by his illegitimacy and rumors of homosexuality.

German-born philosopher Herbert Marcuse had an enormous influence on theories of sexual liberation, particularly in the early post-Stonewall gay movement and on the left.

Nineteenth-Century German activist Karl Heinrich Ulrichs was both the first modern theorist of homosexuality and the first homosexual to "come out" publicly.