The hypersexualization of girls, the cult of porn among boys, the moral permissiveness that their parents demonstrate … Isn’t it Freud’s fault? Was he not the first to proclaim that the driving force of the «I» is the unconscious with all the obscene desires and fantasies hidden in it? Meditates psychoanalyst Catherine Chabert.
Was not Freud the first to assert that all children without exception are «polymorphically perverted»?1 «Yes, he is anxious!» some exclaim.
Whatever discussions have taken place around psychoanalysis since its inception, the main argument of the opponents of the couch all these years remains unchanged: if the topic of sex is the «alpha and omega» of psychoanalytic thought, how can one not see a certain «concern» in it?
However, only those who are completely unfamiliar with the topic — or only half-familiar with it — can continue to stubbornly criticize Freud for «pansexualism». Otherwise, how can you say that? Of course, Freud emphasized the importance of the sexual component of human nature and even argued that it underlies all neuroses. But since 1916, he never tired of repeating: “Psychoanalysis has never forgotten that there are non-sexual drives, it relies on a clear separation of sexual drives and drives of the “I”2.
So what in his statements turned out to be so complicated that disputes about how they should be understood have not subsided for a hundred years? The reason is the Freudian concept of sexuality, which not everyone interprets correctly.
Freud by no means calls: «If you want to live better — have sex!»
Putting sexuality at the center of the unconscious and the entire psyche, Freud speaks not only of genitality and the realization of sexuality. In his understanding of psychosexuality, our impulses are not at all reducible to libido, which seeks satisfaction in successful sexual contact. It is the energy that drives life itself, and it is embodied in various forms, directed to other goals, such as, for example, the achievement of pleasure and success in work or creative recognition.
Because of this, in the soul of each of us there are mental conflicts in which instant sexual impulses and needs of the “I”, desires and prohibitions collide.
Freud by no means calls: «If you want to live better — have sex!» No, sexuality is not so easy to free, not so easy to fully satisfy: it develops from the first days of life and can become a source of both suffering and pleasure, which the master of psychoanalysis tells us about. His method helps everyone to have a dialogue with their unconscious, resolve deep conflicts and thereby gain inner freedom.
1 See «Three Articles on the Theory of Sexuality» in Z. Freud’s Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (AST, 2008).
2 Z. Freud «Introduction to Psychoanalysis» (AST, 2016).