Abstract
This article offers a Lacanian approach to thinking the historicity of psychoanalysis. While some believe that psychoanalysis is a transhistorically valid theory grounded in biology, others have argued that it is a mere historical footnote, hardly relevant to our sexually liberated times. In contrast to these two extremes, Lacan maintained a unique position throughout his later work. His view was that the subjective rupture occasioned by modern rationalism—in particular, Newtonian physics and Cartesian philosophy—had profound effects on the way we experience sexuality. In this sense, psychoanalysis could only become possible in the wake of the Enlightenment project, which excised sexuality from the domain of scientific thought. By excavating this historical dimension of Lacan’s thinking, this paper makes the case that a greater understanding of the historically mediated nature of psychoanalytic truths is vitally important to grasp psychoanalysis, both its subversive force and interpretive limitations
How to Cite:
Wareham, J., (2023) “Modernity and the Desexualization of Thought: The Freudian Unconscious as Historical”, The European Journal of Psychoanalysis 10(2), 1–7.
Rights: In Copyright
Downloads
Downloads are not available for this article.