I found contrasting views in Bersani's essay "Against Monogamy" regarding Freud. Barsani himself points out this out when he explains how Freud suggests sexual dispositions may be meaningless, while at the same time maintaining that, as a critical part of his Oedipal theory, the most important part in determining an individual's lifelong sexual identity is "the relative strength of the masculine and feminine sexual dispositions." After learning much more about the Oedipus complex than I knew before (for example, I did not know Freud's theory led to a later theory that homosexuality was due to an internalization of the mother figure/her desires for a male partner), I believe that much of Freud's ideas on sexuality rely on the implication that there are defining, separate sexual identities of femininity and masculinity. In fact, it is intrinsic to the Oedipus complex because otherwise there would be no accounting for any differences between the father and mother figure, and also between the eventual "emergent" identity. Thus, I find it very contradictory that Freud so clearly believes in a delineation of sexes while also stating that psychology can't define maleness and femaleness "with any precision."
On another note, I was very interested by the Barsani point made about the "anti-social drive toward sexual pleasure." He used it as evidence for the reason that monogamy is so prevalent and favored in society today -- because we are uncomfortable with discussing sexual pleasure and see it as a kind of necessary evil in order to continue populating, we also look down on polygamy because it is a clear indication of our natural promiscuous natures, which we do not want to be reminded of. This view of sexual pleasure as sin has been kept healthy since the Church was in power, and it is also a key point in why sodomy has been/is considered sinful and unwanted. Since sodomy does not produce children and is solely a source of pleasure, it has been branded as disgusting and unnatural, though in reality this disgust stems from a refusal to acknowledge basic human desires and sexuality.
I agree with you in your first paragraph of how you talked about how Bersani contradicts Freud yet uses Freud's logic and findings as sort of evidence and the basis of his argument. I do agree with how you found his point about the sexual drives in relation to our nature of actually being disgusted by it. I found it interesting, and although I do not agree with it, it was something I never heard of before and got me thinking about innate desires in relation to societal enforced values and ways of thinking.
ReplyDelete