Perversion the Social Relation

Perversion 47To return to the question of why one boy might agree to give up pleasurewhile another might refuse, we see that in cases in which there is avery close bond between mother and son, a father has to be very forcefulin his threats to bring about a separation and/or convincing in his promisesof esteem and recognition. But the very fact that such a close bondhas been able to form suggests that the father either is incapable of fulfillingthe paternal function or does not care to interfere (perhaps happyto be left alone by his wife who is now preoccupied with her son). It mayalso be that the boy's mother is perhaps overly indulgent and undercutsthe father's authority. The father, while avoiding the rivalrous ferocityof certain psychotics' fathers, does not forcefully put himself in the positionof symbolic separator (the one who says this is mine and that is'yours, that is, the one who gives the child a symbolic space). And evenif he does try to do so, he may be undermined by the boy's mother who,the moment the father's back is turned, winks at the boy, letting himknow that their special relationship will secretly remain unperturbed.It seems to me that we have to shift our focus from the kind of fatherFreud often seems to have presumed to exist—that is, the father whoforcefully enunciates his will to separate his son from the boy's mother(the pervert being the son who obstinately refuses)—to the all-toocommoncontemporary father who is a much weaker figure and is oftenconfused about his role. 30 In cases where there is a strong mother-sonbond and a weak or indifferent father, the paternal function, while notaltogether absent, may well stand in need of a boost. In an early childhoodphobia such as little Hans's, appearing around age four, the objectthat becomes central in the phobia Hans develops (the horse) servesas a name of the father that contributes to the separation of motherfrom child. Perversion, like early childhood phobia, results from a partialfailure of the paternal function, the latter requiring supplementationin order to bring about separation. Rather than emphasizing, as Freuddoes, the pervert's refusal to sacrifice jouissance, and his attempt tomaintain the jouissance he obtains from the relationship with his motheror mother substitute (a fetish, for example), we need, it seems to me, tostress the inadequacy of the paternal function.While disavowal could be described as a defense mechanism, a defenseagainst the father's demand that the child sacrifice jouissance, wecould instead view it, like Hans's phobia, as not simply evasive, but as an