Loyal opposition and the clarity of dissent. Commentary on Donald P. Spence's >the hermeneutic turn<
- Selected aspects of case material in the treatment of a bisexual woman are used to illustrate the theme of penetrability versus impenetrability in the feminine and masculine psyches. I examine the dimensions not of activity and passivity, but of a fixed versus a permeable bodily and psychic boundary – the ability to penetrate as well as the ability to be penetrated. The patient showed shifting gender identifications, depending on the relational context – the geography of the lover's body and mind – that she described as >expanding her gender repertoire.< Bisexuality is discussed as a creative use of potential space that does not necessitate the collapse of core gender identity. An integration is offered of a clinical and theoretical focus on sexuality with an emphasis on earliest object relations. To the metaphors of the primal scene and the combined parent, I add the metaphor of the nursing couple as the site of bisexual identifications and as the earliest relation of the penetrating to the penetrated. I critique the gender split regarding the ability to penetrate – an ability not inherently male but that comes to be seen as such.
Metadaten| Author: | Dianne Elise |
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| Parent Title (English): | Psychoanalytic Dialogues Vol. 08 (1998), pp. 353-371. |
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| Document Type: | Articles |
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| Language: | English |
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| Year of first Publication: | 1998 |
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| Release Date: | 2017/11/20 |
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| Format: | xerox upon request / Fotokopie auf Anfrage |
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| IdNo: | Elise_D_1998 |
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| Erich Fromm's Library and Erich Fromm Archive: | Articles / Artikel |
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| Licence (German): | xerox upon request |
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