Perversion the Social Relation

Perversion 41tions two examples of such symptoms: a man's fear that his father willpunish him (for continued masturbation), and "an anxious susceptibilityagainst either of his little toes being touched" (SE XXIII, 277-78).Described in this way, disavowal seems very similar to repression: thepushing of a memory out of consciousness, and the return of this memoryin the form of symptoms. Indeed, Freud at first tries to devise aclearer distinction between repression and disavowal by proposing thatwhat is repressed is affect, whereas the idea or thought related to it isdisavowed (SE XXI, 153). Yet this first attempt contradicts Freud's morerigorous and oft-repeated assertion that only an idea or thought can berepressed. In neurosis, an affect and the thought related to it (its "ideationalrepresentative," as Strachey translates Freud's term Vorstellungsrepràsentanz)7 become dissociated; for example, the thought representinga sexual impulse that the ego or superego considers incompatible orunacceptable is repressed, while the affect associated with it is set freeto be displaced. In the description Freud provides in "Splitting of theEgo," disavowal and repression seem to collapse into one and the sameprocess.In an article from 1938, Freud makes a second attempt to distinguishrepression from disavowal by saying that in repression one of thepatient's own sexual impulses ("an instinctual demand from the internalworld") disappears, whereas in disavowal it is "a portion of the realexternal world" (SE XXIII, 204) that disappears. To state this more rigorously:in repression, the thought associated with one of the patient'sown drives 8 is put out of mind (the quantum of libido or affect associatedwith the drive being set free to drift or be displaced), while indisavowal a perception of the "real external world" is put out of mind.This only makes matters worse, however, because the "portion of thereal external world" in question is, Freud says, the "lack of a penis." 9It should be clear that, strictly speaking, one never sees or perceives thelack of anything: one sees what is there to be seen, not what is absent.The lack of a penis (or of anything else for that matter) is not a questionof perception: there is no lack at the perceptual level—there the worldis full. 10 One "sees" nothing only if one is expecting something in particularand mentally notes its absence. Except in a totally dark room, onealways sees something; there are always photons striking the rods andcones of the eye. "Nothing" exists only at the level of thought.