Freud and Sexuality

Chris: So how do you feel about the “strong sexuality” within the writings of Freud? Do you believe it?

Adam: Well, in order to answer this question I must first determine what is “sexual” about sexuality itself. The answer is simple: pleasure. We associate sex with the utmost pleasure. An orgasm is seen as a pleasure overload, and is almost universally thought of as the most pleasurable experience one can have. But, as well all know, there are many pleasure producing activities in life other than having sex. These pleasure producing activities involve all of our senses.

What do watching a well-filmed movie, observing a masterful work of art (such as Van Gogh), and viewing pornography have in common? Simple – These activities are pleasure for the eyes; we can have a metaphorical “hard-on” while caught-up in any of these activities, and this can often be seen in common sayings: “Man, he’s really getting off on that art,” or “The visuals were amazing” – akin to – “The sex was amazing.”

We moan while eating a tender piece of meat at a fancy restaurant, and that same moan can be heard during the sexual act. The water can feel orgasmic as we enter a warm Jacuzzi. The smell of certain fragrances can sexually arouse men or women, leading them in a pursuit of pleasure which goes beyond the nose itself (led by the nose). And music can be heaven for the ears (as sex is often thought of as a heaven-like unity – “It’s like I’m in heaven” etc). Her voice can sound like that of an angel, or her voice may sound sexy and seductive, in which case you become aroused by a partial object: that of sound. And remember, it could a very “un-sexy” old woman on the other side of the phone line, or perhaps, an old man…

I hope these examples have convinced you that sexuality extends beyond the sexual act itself, and is contained in all of our senses, as well as many of our daily activities. Looking at a woman’s boots, hearing a women’s voice, smelling a women’s scent, feeling a women’s touch, and tasting a women’s lips all involve our entire sensory apparatus. However, none of these examples involve “the whole women” as such, or even the act of copulation. Instead, they involve a part of our bodies (our sense organs - the eye, the ear, etc), a “partial object” relating to the women (boots, voice, scent, etc), and the sexual pleasure that is produced when these two parties interact. But one must remember that what makes these aforementioned examples “sexual” is not their alluding to the act of copulation itself, but the sensual (i.e. sexual) pleasure they produce. This sensual pleasure can be produced without reference to the act of copulation; therefore, everything which produces pleasure has a sexual (i.e. sensual) aspect or meaning.

It may be beneficial to think of pleasure as a continuum, or rather, a thermometer. All of our pleasures register a certain degree on the thermometer, and the things which cause us to experience more pleasure register a higher degree on the thermometer than our lower pleasures. When the thermometer reaches its peak we call this orgasm; but not so fast.... How are we to explain those who do not enjoy or take pleasure in sex? How about those who choose not to have it? Sex may be traumatic for such people: rape victims, nuns, people who associate it with evil, etc. What pleasures give these individuals the utmost ecstasy? What, for them, replaces the orgasm on the topmost bulb of the thermometer? It could be anything relating to the senses, or even, to the imagination (which is just the nebulous amalgamation of the senses in the form of memory): art, music, food (it often is for those who are morbidly obese), movies, even religion (see Freud’s The Future of an Illusion).

Freud gave up sex rather early, and what did he replace it with: psychoanalysis, writing, seeing patients, etc. Sublimation is the process of exchanging sex for other pleasures. Indeed, when we sublimate we seem to release this sexual energy through a seemingly non-sexual act. In The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psycho-analysis, Lacan offers a great example of sublimation: “For the moment, I am not fucking, I am talking to you. Well! I can have exactly the same satisfaction as if I were fucking. That’s what it means. Indeed, it raises the question of whether in fact I am not fucking at this moment” (p. 165-166).

The last point I want to emphasize is that we are sexual beings from day one in the sense that we first obtain pleasure through sucking: sucking on the breast, sucking on nipples, pacifiers, etc. When we are old enough we crawl around and put things in our mouths, chew on objects, etc. All these actions are mediated by pleasure and gratification; not necessarily nourishment. The aforementioned pacifier is a perfect example of the fact that sucking, for infants and toddlers, is gratifying and soothing, but not necessarily nourishing.

When Freud speaks of the organism “expelling” its libidinal energies and returning to that tensionless state, he is referring to behavior such as infants falling asleep while sucking on pacifiers (although they often continue the sucking motions while asleep). Nature has created a system in which what is pleasurable is oftentimes nourishing as well, as is the case with an infant sucking at the breast, but we must also ask ourselves: what exactly does a grown man get out of sucking a pair of breasts during the sexual act?

Have I answered your question?

Chris: Yes Indeed! It actually makes perfect sense now.