What IS Sex?

Nonfiction, Health & Well Being, Psychology, Psychoanalysis, Religion & Spirituality, Philosophy
Cover of the book What IS Sex? by Alenka Zupancic, The MIT Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Alenka Zupancic ISBN: 9780262341912
Publisher: The MIT Press Publication: September 1, 2017
Imprint: The MIT Press Language: English
Author: Alenka Zupancic
ISBN: 9780262341912
Publisher: The MIT Press
Publication: September 1, 2017
Imprint: The MIT Press
Language: English

Why sexuality is at the point of a “short circuit” between ontology and epistemology.

Consider sublimation—conventionally understood as a substitute satisfaction for missing sexual satisfaction. But what if, as Lacan claims, we can get exactly the same satisfaction that we get from sex from talking (or writing, painting, praying, or other activities)? The point is not to explain the satisfaction from talking by pointing to its sexual origin, but that the satisfaction from talking is itself sexual. The satisfaction from talking contains a key to sexual satisfaction (and not the other way around)—even a key to sexuality itself and its inherent contradictions. The Lacanian perspective would make the answer to the simple-seeming question, “What is sex?” rather more complex. In this volume in the Short Circuits series, Alenka Zupancic approaches the question from just this perspective, considering sexuality a properly philosophical problem for psychoanalysis; and by psychoanalysis, she means that of Freud and Lacan, not that of the kind of clinician practitioners called by Lacan “orthopedists of the unconscious.”

Zupancic argues that sexuality is at the point of a “short circuit” between ontology and epistemology. Sexuality and knowledge are structured around a fundamental negativity, which unites them at the point of the unconscious. The unconscious (as linked to sexuality) is the concept of an inherent link between being and knowledge in their very negativity.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Why sexuality is at the point of a “short circuit” between ontology and epistemology.

Consider sublimation—conventionally understood as a substitute satisfaction for missing sexual satisfaction. But what if, as Lacan claims, we can get exactly the same satisfaction that we get from sex from talking (or writing, painting, praying, or other activities)? The point is not to explain the satisfaction from talking by pointing to its sexual origin, but that the satisfaction from talking is itself sexual. The satisfaction from talking contains a key to sexual satisfaction (and not the other way around)—even a key to sexuality itself and its inherent contradictions. The Lacanian perspective would make the answer to the simple-seeming question, “What is sex?” rather more complex. In this volume in the Short Circuits series, Alenka Zupancic approaches the question from just this perspective, considering sexuality a properly philosophical problem for psychoanalysis; and by psychoanalysis, she means that of Freud and Lacan, not that of the kind of clinician practitioners called by Lacan “orthopedists of the unconscious.”

Zupancic argues that sexuality is at the point of a “short circuit” between ontology and epistemology. Sexuality and knowledge are structured around a fundamental negativity, which unites them at the point of the unconscious. The unconscious (as linked to sexuality) is the concept of an inherent link between being and knowledge in their very negativity.

More books from The MIT Press

Cover of the book Logic Primer by Alenka Zupancic
Cover of the book Rock, Bone, and Ruin by Alenka Zupancic
Cover of the book MOOCs by Alenka Zupancic
Cover of the book The Fabric of Space by Alenka Zupancic
Cover of the book Technically Together by Alenka Zupancic
Cover of the book Plastic Water by Alenka Zupancic
Cover of the book Plato and the Nerd by Alenka Zupancic
Cover of the book The Measure of Madness by Alenka Zupancic
Cover of the book Authors, Users, and Pirates by Alenka Zupancic
Cover of the book Machineries of Oil by Alenka Zupancic
Cover of the book Streetlights and Shadows by Alenka Zupancic
Cover of the book Nurturing the Older Brain and Mind by Alenka Zupancic
Cover of the book War Games by Alenka Zupancic
Cover of the book Introduction to Computation and Programming Using Python by Alenka Zupancic
Cover of the book Taming the Sun by Alenka Zupancic
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy