Perversion the Social Relation

Perversion 63simultaneously a recognition at some level that that is true, as the thought generatesanxiety in the pervert. Alongside this, however, there is a kind of subjective necessityleading to a belief beyond all proofs, a disavowal of that intolerable knowledge("It's small now, but it will grow"). The pervert knows full well that women do nothave penises, but cannot help feeling that they do anyway ("Je le sais très bien, maisquand même").Whereas neurosis consists in a defense against an incompatible idea involving sexuality—leadingto a denial taking the classic form, "The person in my dream was notmy mother," the idea coming to consciousness only thanks to the addition of the"not"—perversion involves a kind of split, according to Freud: the pervert says yesand no simultaneously.19 Consider the importance in American culture—intuitively understood by every successfulmerchandiser—of getting something for nothing, of getting things for free.Consider too the eminent popularity of movies, books, and stories about bank robbers(e.g., A Fish Called Wanda), jewel thieves (e.g., The Pink Panther), and so onwhere the audience is led to identify with criminals and enjoy their exploits leadingto free millions.20 At the very least, the obsessive's autoerotic behavior is transformed: if he continuesto masturbate, it is in defiance of the paternal prohibition and thus this prohibitionbecomes part and parcel of the masturbatory activity. The Other becomes includedin the fantasies that accompany it (not necessarily consciously, of course). One ofmy female analysands, for example, continued to masturbate while fantasizing aboutbeing watched by a powerful man.This yielding of pleasure to the Other can also be understood in terms of sublimation,as Freud conceptualizes it.21 According to Freud, a young boy's masturbatory behavior generally involves fantasiesabout the boy's mother, which implies that it is already alloerotic—in other words,that it involves another person. I would even go so far as to claim that, beyond anextremely tender age, there is no such thing as autoeroticisnt. Even an infant's masturbatorytouching already includes its parents insofar as they first stimulated certainzones, showed interest in them, paid attention to them, lavished care on them, and soon. The connection to other people—which is so evident in the adult's fantasies thatinvariably accompany "autoerotic behavior"—is so fundamental that there seems tobe no eroticism, as such, without it. All eroticism is alloeroticism.22 For example, SE XVI, Lectures 21-22.23 Consider, for example, the behavior of little Hans's mother: whereas she beats herdaughter Hanna, she takes her son into her bed, into the bathroom with her, andsoon.24 This is how I think we can understand what Freud means when he ulks about thepervert's great narcissistic attachment to his penis, and his "excessive" drives. Fordrives are not constitutional or biological in origin, but come into being as a functionof the Other's demands (the anal drive, for example, comes into being due to theparents' demands that the child become toilet trained, that it learn to control its ex-