Brighton and Sussex Sexualities Network

'Psychoanalysis contemplates queerness: cases of resistance and identification in recent French and British psychoanalytic discourse'

Thursday 18 February at 5.15pm. Room K2.29 ('Council Room'), King's building, Strand campus, King’s College London

Oliver Davis (University of Warwick)

ABSTRACT:

To somewhat jaded enthusiasts for psychoanalysis, of which I am one, it comes as only a small surprise to learn that plenty of mainstream psychoanalysts and psychotherapists, in France as in the UK, naturally with the best of intentions, are still hell-bent on curing queerness. Similarly, in debates on gay and lesbian parenting rights in France, so-called analysts have shown that they are quite prepared to exploit the prestige of their profession by intervening in the public sphere, sometimes maliciously, sometimes just naively, to air the manifestly pre-analytic view that The Symbolic dictates children require, always and necessarily, a Daddy and a Mummy. With this reactionary politics of the psychoanalytic mainstream in mind, a politics in the French case so competently exposed by sociologist Eric Fassin and so very vigorously countered by queer theorist Marie-Hélène Bourcier, this exploratory paper discusses two more marginal, more intriguing and ultimately more revealing recent cases of psychoanalytic interest in the queer. For resistance, philosopher and analyst Monique David-Ménard’s careful but ultimately tautologous critique of Butler (Sexualités, genres et mélancolie: s’entretenir avec Judith Butler, 2009) and, for identification, Adam Phillips’ daunting salute to bareback in his strained exchange with Leo Bersani, Intimacies (2008).

All welcome.

Following the talk we will be going to the Retro Bar for a drink. (The Retro Bar is located at 2 George Court, just off the Strand towards the Charing Cross end.)

Lift access to the Council Room is from the Ground Floor of the King's Building: please ask at the main Strand reception if you are unsure about directions.

For information about other events organised by Queer@King's, see
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/humanities/hrc/queer/