clinical encounters in sexuality advance praise for clinical encounters in sexuality “In this terrific book, the psychoanalysts and the queer theo- rists — who are sometimes the same person, but usually not — are less in “conversation” about sexuality than they are pondering whether they have the same desires for sexuality. Is it perverse enough, is it dirty enough, is it ecstatic enough? Is it available to be “used” to cure as well as to make shattering bearable; to imagine as well as to capture truth? There is a lot of talking across each other in this book — sexual difference takes shape so many ways, as does the relation between structures and norms. But if interdisciplinarity is rarely achieved, there is also a lot of generous listening and imagining on both sides, about what it would be like to want cure and care where the object sexuality and its subject are only ever provisionally stable. It’s thrilling and frustrating to read this, and I am so glad I did. It will be great for teaching.” — Lauren Berlant , University of Chicago, author of Cruel Opti- mism, The Female Complaint, and Desire/Love “No book in psychoanalysis could be more timely than Clini- cal Encounters in Sexuality. Here, psychoanalysis, often accused of heterosexism, is challenged to rethink its approach to sexu- alities. The accusation is justified, at least historically, and the responses here by leading analysts and theorists from a variety of orientations are as diverse as they are illuminating. There is the guilty-as-charged response which calls for a rethink of ana- lytic concepts. There is the response that explores the tendencies in new discourses to idealise sexuality and ignore the crooked wood from which this most difficult of relationships is carved. The collection is very rich and raises the debate over the place of psychoanalysis in contemporary sexualities to a new level. The book is a must-read for anyone interested in psychoanaly- sis — clinicians and theorists alike.” — Russell Grigg , Psychoanalyst in Melbourne, Australia, author of Lacan, Language, and Philosophy, and co-editor of Female Sexuality: The Early Psychoanalytic Controversies “The relationship between psychoanalysis and sexuality has long been in need of a shake up. This remarkable collection of essays re-draws the lines of this encounter, offering provocative, exciting challenges to both its contributing authors and its read- ers. In a series of deft and insightful moves, Giffney and Watson have created a project that dares to speak to complexity by weav- ing together voices that utter the unexpected and harness expe- rience to theory and practice. The result is often breathtaking, offering a compendium of personal, clinical and critical reflec- tion that is both charged and compelling. The reader is invited in to grapple with the queer imperatives of the volume, so that the tapestry becomes ever more intricate. This is an important, passionate book, one that, by turns, tantalises and assuages as it interrogates the messy intimacies of multiple desire.” — Caroline Bainbridge , University of Roehampton, author of A Feminine Cinematics and The Cinema of Lars von Trier, and Film Editor of The International Journal of Psychoanalysis “Given the centrality of sexuality to theories of psychoanaly- sis, it is striking how little it is actually taught in institutes. This unique and creatively organized book seeks to remedy this lack, by creating a layered dialogue between academics writing queer and sexuality theories, practicing clinicians, and psychoanalytic theorists. The chapters pull the reader into an exciting liminal space where cultural, societal, and clinical discourses intermin- gle, creating embodied experiences of gender, sexualities, and sex. As editors, Giffney and Watson curate an encounter be- tween queer theorists, clinicians and psychoanalytic theorists. But the experience of the encounter includes the reader, who has the invaluable opportunity to be a fly on the wall as these cross- disciplinary conversations unfold chapter by chapter. Reading this book is not a passive experience but one requiring active participation in an examination of the ways cultural discourses of sexuality shape transferences and clinical engagement. Most exciting was the historical register, where established theorists glance back to their own individual romances with psycho- analysis, sharing their initial hopes for the radical potentials of clinical theory and practice to transform our experiences. This radical potential of psychoanalysis is rekindled through the lay- ered dialogues and passionate encounters captured in Clinical Encounters in Sexuality .” — Katie Gentile , Director, Gender Studies Program, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY and co-editor of the journal Studies in Gender & Sexuality “This great collection of essays fills an important gap in the often contested relationship between psychoanalysis and queer theo- ry. Clinical cases presented here illustrate how people struggle with questions about their sexual identity and how troubles re- lated to desire, drive, and jouissance attest that there is some- thing inherently queer in human sexuality as such. For the first time we have a volume which opens a dialogue between differ- ent psychoanalytic schools and its perceptions of sexual identity. This book is essential reading for anyone who is dealing with the riddle of sexual difference. And who isn’t!” — Renata Salecl , Professor of Psychology and Psychoanalysis at Birkbeck, University of London, and Senior Researcher in Criminology in the Faculty of Law at the University of Ljublja- na, Slovenia. Her books include ( Per)versions of Love and Hate, On Anxiety, and Tyranny of Choice “‘Rightly,’ writes one of the psychoanalysts in this volume, ‘Queer Theory has not always been respectful of psychoanalysis, and it is laudable that a serious attempt to engage with psychoanaly- sis has been promoted.’ This book arises from the recognition that each ‘partner’ to this engagement is itself based on encoun- ters — the two-way event of the clinic and the multiple events of queer desire. It goes beyond both the couch and the bed. In its three sections, queer theorists present key concepts; clinicians respond; and ‘leading thinkers’ take an overview. The result is a fascinating patchwork of ideas which places reading upon reading. Tones of voice, levels of sympathy and understanding vary — this may be “a provocatively uneasy intimacy” — but in the main this volume is indeed, as a third contributor notes, ‘a rich repertoire of possibilities for getting creative with the differ- ences that divide and connect us.’” — Naomi Segal , Birkbeck, University of London, author of Con- sensuality: Didier Anzieu, Gender and the Sense of Touch and translator of Didier Anzieu’s The Skin Ego “Psychoanalysis and queer theory have a special interest in sexuality but usually follow diverging paths in framing its im- portance for human subjectivity. This volume brings together key scholars from both disciplines and engenders a fruitful en- counter, with clinical and theoretical papers, as well as reflec- tive essays. Enthusiasts of queer theory or psychoanalysis will find advanced papers relating to their interest, and will also be drawn to explore up-to-date viewpoints in each discipline. Stu- dents and advanced scholars alike will appreciate these subtle discussions.” — Stijn Vanheule , psychoanalyst, clinical psychologist, Profes- sor of Psychoanalysis at Ghent University, Belgium, and author of Psychiatric Diagnosis Revisited: From DSM to Clinical Case Formulation, Diagnosis and the DSM: A Critical Review and The Subject of Psychosis: A Lacanian Perspective Before you start to read this book, take this moment to think about making a donation to punctum books, an independent non-profit press, @ https://punctumbooks.com/support/ If you’re reading the e-book, you can click on the image below to go directly to our donations site. Any amount, no matter the size, is appreciated and will help us to keep our ship of fools afloat. Contri- butions from dedicated readers will also help us to keep our commons open and to cultivate new work that can’t find a welcoming port elsewhere. Our ad- venture is not possible without your support. Vive la open-access. Fig . 1. Hieronymus Bosch, Ship of Fools (1490–1500) clinical encounters in sexuality: psychoanalytic practice and queer theory. Copyright © 2017 Editors and authors. This work carries a Creative Commons by-nc-sa 4.0 International license, which means that you are free to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, and you may also remix, transform, and build upon the material, as long as you clearly at- tribute the work to the authors and editors (but not in a way that suggests the authors or punctum books endorses you and your work), you do not use this work for commercial gain in any form whatsoever, and that for any remix- ing and transformation, you distribute your rebuild under the same license. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ First published in 2017 by punctum books, Earth, Milky Way. www.punctumbooks.com isbn-13: 978-0-9985318-5-4 isbn-10: 0-9985318-5-5 Library of Congress Cataloging Data is available from the Library of Congress Book design: Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei Cover Image: Karla Black, There Can Be No Arguments, 2011. Polythene, plas- ter powder, paint, thread. 240 × 270 × 59 cm. Photo by Ruth Clark. Courtesy Galerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne. CLINICAL ENCouNTERS in SEXuALITy Psychoanalytic Pμactice & Queer Th™ory edited by Noreen Giffney & Eve Watson For Nicole, three words: I love you For Deirdre, you are, quite simply, the best Table of Contents Acknowledgments xvii Introduction 19 Clinical Encounters in Sexuality: Psychoanalytic Practice and Queer Theory Noreen Giffney Section 1 — Queer Theories 1. Identity 51 Precarious Sexualities: Queer Challenges to Psychoanalytic and Social Identity Categorization Alice Kuzniar 2. Desire 77 Missing Something? Queer Desire Lara Farina 3. Pleasure 101 Jouissance : The Gash of Bliss Kathryn Bond Stockton 4. Perversion 123 Perversion and the Problem of Fluidity and Fixity Lisa Downing 5. Ethics 145 Out of Line, On Hold: D.W. Winnicott’s Queer Sensibilities Michael Snediker 6. Discourse 171 Discourse and the History of Sexuality Will Stockton Section 2 — Psychoanalytic Responses 7. 197 On Not Thinking Straight: Comments on a Conceptual Marriage R.D. Hinshelwood 8. 211 Queer as a New Shelter from Castration Abe Geldhof and Paul Verhaeghe 9. 223 The Redress of Psychoanalysis Ann Murphy 10. 235 Queer Directions from Lacan Ian Parker 11. 245 Queer Theory Meets Jung Claudette Kulkarni 12. 261 Queer Troubles for Psychoanalysis Carol Owens 13. 275 Clinique Aranye Fradenburg 14. 285 From Tragic Fall to Programmatic Blueprint: “Behold this is Oedipus...” Olga Cox Cameron 15. 301 Enigmatic Sexuality Katrine Zeuthen and Judy Gammelgaard 16. 313 The Transforming Nexus: Psychoanalysis, Social Theory and Queer Childhood Ken Corbett 17. 329 Clinical Encounters: The Queer New Times Rob Weatherill 18. 343 Undoing Psychoanalysis: Towards a Clinical and Conceptual Metistopia Dany Nobus 19. 357 “You make me feel like a natural woman:” Thoughts on a Case of Transsexual Identity Formation and Queer Theory Ami Kaplan 20. 369 Sexual Difference: From Symptom to Sinthome Patricia Gherovici Section 3 — Responses to Psychoanalytic Practices Encountering Queer Theories 21. 385 A Plague on Both Your Houses Stephen Frosh 22. 391 Something Amiss Jacqueline Rose 23. 397 Taking Shelter from Queer Tim Dean 24. 403 Courageous Drawings of Vigilant Ambiguities Noreen O’Connor 25. 411 Understanding Homophobia Mark J. Blechner 26. 419 Transgender, Queer Theory, and Psychoanalysis Susan Stryker 27. 427 The Psychoanalysis that Dare Not Speak Its Name Ona Nierenberg Cover Image — There Can Be No Argument s On the Not-Meanings of Karla Black’s 437 There Can Be No Arguments Medb Ruane Afterword 445 Reflections on the Encounters between Psychoanalysis and Queer Theory Eve Watson Contributors 475 Index 487 xvii Acknowledgments We would like to thank Eileen A. Joy, Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei, and their colleagues at punctum books for their warm wel- come, their enthusiasm for this book and their careful attention to the work. We particularly appreciate Eileen’s vision, energy, intellectual courage and commitment to knowledge for its own sake. Rare gifts, which we recognize and value. This book took a long time to be published, due to its structure and content. We are grateful to the contributors who have shown great patience dur- ing this process. We are excited that you will finally get to meet all of your many different voices gathered together in one place. We extend our sincere thanks to Karla Black, Ruth Clark, and Galerie Gisela Capitain in Cologne for permission to use Ruth’s image of Karla’s sculpture, There Can Be No Arguments, on the front cover, and to Vincent van Gerven Oei for designing the cover. The cover image is the reader’s first encounter with a book, and it has been so important to us to find an image that invites the reader into an experience, while at the same time not defining in advance what that experience might look like. We appreciate Robert Levy and Ona Nierenberg in New York for their help when we were initially trying to track down permissions for the cover image. Vincent has designed both the cover and the text. We admire his sense of style and feel fortunate that he has shared it with us and our book. We are also indebted to colleagues for their generous endorsement of the collection: Caroline Bainbridge, Lauren Ber- lant, Katie Gentile, Russell Grigg, Renata Salecl, Naomi Segal, and Stijn Vanheule. As those of us who publish know very well, we rely on the kindness of our colleagues who give their time freely to support and promote work in the fields in which we all write. And we would not be able to do the work that we do without the encouragement, guidance and friendship of colleagues in Ireland and beyond. — Noreen Giffney and Eve Watson xviii Nicole Murray, you are my most important collaborator. No idea makes it into print without me first thinking it through with you. Eve Watson, you’ve been a trusted friend and supportive colleague in the psychoanalytic community in Dublin. What an experience this particular editing-encounter has been. Michael O’Rourke, we’ve been friends for over twenty years. I remember with deep fondness the creativity, vibrancy and hopefulness of our early meetings in the LGs, as we hammered out our wild ideas on the computer keyboard. Many people have welcomed me into the psychoanalytic community in Ireland in different ways and at different times: Margaret Boyle Spelman, Fran Burns, Olga Cox Cameron, Fionán Coyle, Sheena Eustace, Joanna Fortune, Mary Logue, Ian Miller, Liz Monahan, Ann Murphy, Berna O’Brien, Toni O’Brien Johnson, Pauline O’Callaghan, Anne O’Leary, Carol Owens, Mary Pyle, Silvia Roncalli, Medb Ruane, Michelle Sludds- Hickey, Caríosa Walsh, Marie Walshe, and Rob Weatherill. — Noreen Giffney Noreen Giffney, co-editor, fellow psychoanalytic practitioner, and good friend, without whom this book would not have been possible, and with whom it has been a joy to work. Noreen and Michael O’Rourke, who together established queer theory in Ire- land, for their warm welcome, creativity and boundless spirit of openness, cooperation, and interdisciplinarity. It laid the ground- work for this book. Olga Cox Cameron in Dublin, perspicacious interlocutor, and Ian Parker in Manchester: psychoanalytic prac- titioners and exceptional interdisciplinarians, for their unflagging encouragement. Pauline O’Callaghan, Ona Nierenberg, and An- nie Rogers, for generous parlaying and spirit lifting. Carol Owens, for publishing support over the years. All of my psychoanalytic and academic colleagues, whose support and collegiality is deeply treasured. Most importantly, Deirdre Kiely, for her inexhaustible love and encouragement. The encounters go on. — Eve Watson 19 INTRODUCTION Clinical Encounters in Sexuality: Psychoanalytic Practice and Queer Theory 1 Noreen Giffney Clinical Encounters in Sexuality makes an intervention into the fields of clinical psychoanalysis and sexuality studies, in an ef- fort to think about a range of issues relating to sexuality 2 from a clinical psychoanalytic perspective. This book concentrates on a number of concepts, namely identity, desire, pleasure, perver- sion, ethics, and discourse. Eve Watson and I have chosen queer theory, a sub-field of sexuality studies, as an interlocutor for the clinical contributors, because it is at the forefront of theoretical considerations of sexuality, as well as being both reliant upon and suspicious of psychoanalysis as a clinical practice and dis- course. The book brings together a number of psychoanalytic 1 I am grateful to Eve Watson and Nicole Murray for extensive discussions about the themes discussed in this Introduction, and for their feedback on earlier drafts. An early version of this Introduction was discussed at a meeting of the Psychoanalysis Working Group at Birkbeck, University of London. My thanks to members of the Group for their comments and ques- tions, which helped me to extend and develop my original points. 2 A note on terminology: When I use the term sexuality, I understand it to be a broad umbrella term which encompasses sexual identities; sex acts; sexual thoughts, desires and pleasures; sexual fantasies and daydreams; and phantasies that do not make it to consciousness, yet have an effect on the life of the person. Eadie (2004) edited an expansive glossary of terms relating to sexuality.