Lacan's psychoanalytic take on what makes a pervert perverse is not the fact of habitually engaging in specific abnormal or transgressive sexual acts, but of occupying a particular structural position in relation to the Other. Perversion is one of Lacan's three main ontological diagnostic structures, indicating fundamentally different ways of solving the problems of alienation, separation from the primary caregiver, and castration. The perverse subject has undergone alienation but disavowed castration, suffering from excessive jouissance and a core belief that the law and social norms are fraudulent at worst and weak at best.
Key Features
- Close reading of Lacan's theories on perversion and substructures.
- Accessible explanations of Lacanian theory and its etiology, characteristics, symptoms, and fundamental fantasy.
- Guidance for clinicians to differentiate between psychotic, neurotic, and perverse patients.
- Two detailed qualitative clinical case studies illustrating differences in transference relations and treatment recommendations.
Additional Information
In Perversion, Stephanie Swales provides a qualitative hermeneutic reading of what Lacan said about perversion and its substructures (i.e., fetishism, voyeurism, exhibitionism, sadism, and masochism). The book offers a treatment model for working with perversion versus neurosis and will be of great interest to scholars and clinicians in the fields of psychoanalysis, psychology, forensic science, cultural studies, and philosophy.
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