The World of Perversion: Psychoanalysis and the Impossible Absolute of Desire

An original critique of queer theory, from a psychoanalytic perspective.

In The World of Perversion, James Penney argues that antihomophobic criticism has nothing to lose-and indeed everything to gain-by reclaiming the psychoanalytic concept of perversion as psychic structure. Analyzing the antagonism between psychoanalytic approaches to perversion and those inspired by the work of Michel Foucault, Penney explores how different assumptions about sexuality have determined the development of c...