Homo Psyche: On Queer Theory and Erotophobia

by Gila Ashtor

Overview

Winner, Alan Bray Memorial Book Award
2022 Lammy Finalist, LGBTQ Studies

Can queer theory be erotophobic? This book proceeds from the perplexing observation that for all of its political agita, rhetorical virtuosity, and intellectual restlessness, queer theory conforms to a model of erotic life that is psychologically conservative and narrow. Even after several decades of combative, dazzling, irreverent queer critical thought, the field remains far from grasping that sexuality’s radical potential lies in its being understood as “exogenous, intersubjective and intrusive” (Laplanche). In particular, and despite the pervasiveness and popularity of recent calls to deconstruct the ideological foundations of contemporary queer thought, no study has as yet considered or in any way investigated the singular role of psychology in shaping the field’s conceptual impasses and politico-ethical limitations.

Through close readings of key thinkers in queer theoretical thought—Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Leo Bersani, Lee Edelman, Judith Butler, Lauren Berlant, and Jane Gallop—Homo Psyche introduces metapsychology as a new dimension of analysis vis-à-vis the theories of French psychoanalyst Jean Laplanche, who insisted on “new foundations for psychoanalysis” that radically departed from existing Freudian and Lacanian models of the mind. Staging this intervention, Ashtor deepens current debates about the future of queer studies by demonstrating how the field’s systematic neglect of metapsychology as a necessary and independent realm of ideology ultimately enforces the complicity of queer studies with psychological conventions that are fundamentally erotophobic and therefore inimical to queer theory’s radical and ethical project.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780823294169
Publisher:	Fordham University Press
Publication date:	06/01/2021
Pages:	252
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Gila Ashtor is a critical theorist, psychoanalyst, and writer. She teaches at Columbia Universityand is a psychoanalyst in private practice in New York City. She trained at the Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research (IPTAR) and is the author of a book on psychoanalytic theory, Exigent Psychoanalysis: The Interventions of Jean Laplanche, and an experimental memoir, Aural History.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Homo Psyche: On Queer Theory and Erotophobia | 1

1 What “Theory” Knew: Sedgwick, Queerness, Hermeneutics | 33

2 The Genealogy of Sex: Bersani, Laplanche, and Self-Shattering Sexuality | 62

3 Boundaries Are for Sissies: Violation in Jane Gallop and Henry James | 85

4 Adults Only: Lee Edelman’s No Future and the Limits of Queer Critique | 116

5 Psychology as Ideology-Lite: Butler, and the Trouble with Gender Theory | 141

6 Two Girls2: Sedgwick + Berlant, Relational and Queer | 171

Acknowledgments | 201

Notes | 203

Works Cited | 223

Index | 233

Editorial Reviews

Gila Ashtor’s Homo Psyche is a bold and ambitious attempt to rethink the foundations of contemporary queer theory beyond its customary psyche versus anti-psyche (or psychoanalysis versus anti-psychoanalysis) divisions. The need to transcend these pointless divisions—which lead to paralyzing intellectual impasses—is undoubtedly an urgent task. In this sense, Ashtor’s book is a timely and astute intervention.—Mari Ruti, author of Penis Envy and Other Bad Feelings: The Emotional Costs of Everyday Life, and The Ethics of Opting Out: Queer Theory's Defiant Subjects

From the Publisher

Ashtor helps us to see how the erotic enlarges sexuality and infuses our everyday lives. For Catholics, Ashtor can help us to consider liberation theology more intimately and relationally—ultimately, more queer.

National Catholic Reporter

Gila Ashtor’s Homo Psyche is a bold and ambitious attempt to rethink the foundations of contemporary queer theory beyond its customary psyche versus anti-psyche (or psychoanalysis versus anti-psychoanalysis) divisions. The need to transcend these pointless divisions—which lead to paralyzing intellectual impasses—is undoubtedly an urgent task. In this sense, Ashtor’s book is a timely and astute intervention.

Mari Ruti