Read Kiss of the Spider Woman Online
Authors: Manuel Puig
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Kiss of the Spider Woman (35 page)
Chapter 7
In his
Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis
, O. Fenichel asserts that the probability of a homosexual orientation increases the more the male child identifies with his mother. This situation results especially when the maternal figure is more compelling than that of the father, or when the father is altogether absent from the family setting, as in cases of death or divorce, or whenever the figure of the father, if in fact present, is deemed repellent because of some serious defect, such as alcoholism, excessive strictness or extreme violence of character. The child has need of an adult hero to serve as a model for conduct: through identification, the child will go on to adopt characteristic parental traits of conduct, and even though, to a certain extent, he rebels against obeying their demands, unconsciously he will incorporate the habits and even the quirks of his progenitors, perpetuating the cultural traits of the society in which he lives. Once having identified with his father, Fenichel continues, the boy takes on a masculine view of the world, and in Occidental society that view includes a strong component of aggressivity—a vestige of his formerly indisputable condition of master—which helps the male child impose his new presence. On the other hand, the boy who is already adopting the maternal figure as a model and fails to encounter sufficiently early some masculine figure—to check his fascination for the maternal—will be socially ostracized because of his feminine traits, inasmuch as he fails to display the appropriate toughness of the normal male child.
With respect to the same matter, Freud states in
On the Transformation of Instincts
that within the male homosexual, the most complete masculine attitude can at times be combined with a total sexual inversion—understanding “masculine attitude” to include such traits as bravery, honor, and the spirit of trial and adventure. But in his later work,
On Narcissism: an Introduction
, he elaborates a theory according to which the male homosexual would begin with a temporary maternal fixation, only to finally identify himself as a woman. If the object of his desire should happen to be a young boy, this is because his mother loved him, as a boy himself. Or because he would actually have wanted his mother to love him in the same way. In other words, the object of his desire is his own image. For Freud, then, the myths of Narcissus and Oedipus are both components of the original conflict which lies at the core of homosexuality. But of all of Freud’s observations concerning homosexuality, this one has been most subject to attack, the principal objection being that homosexuals whose identification is deeply feminine seem to feel attracted to very masculine types, or to males of a much older age.
On the Transformation of Instincts
that within the male homosexual, the most complete masculine attitude can at times be combined with a total sexual inversion—understanding “masculine attitude” to include such traits as bravery, honor, and the spirit of trial and adventure. But in his later work,
On Narcissism: an Introduction
, he elaborates a theory according to which the male homosexual would begin with a temporary maternal fixation, only to finally identify himself as a woman. If the object of his desire should happen to be a young boy, this is because his mother loved him, as a boy himself. Or because he would actually have wanted his mother to love him in the same way. In other words, the object of his desire is his own image. For Freud, then, the myths of Narcissus and Oedipus are both components of the original conflict which lies at the core of homosexuality. But of all of Freud’s observations concerning homosexuality, this one has been most subject to attack, the principal objection being that homosexuals whose identification is deeply feminine seem to feel attracted to very masculine types, or to males of a much older age.
Again in the latter work, Freud talks about the development of erotic feelings and about still other aspects of the genesis of homosexuality. He asserts, for instance, that libido in babies is of a rather diffuse character, and has to pass through several stages until finally achieving the education of its impulse and managing to have it devolve upon a person of the opposite sex with whom pleasure can be attained through genital union. The first stage is an oral one, in which pleasure is derived solely from mouth contacts, such as suction. Later on comes the anal stage, in which the child derives his satisfaction from his own intestinal movements. The last and definitive phase is the genital. Freud considers it the only mature form of sexuality, an assertion which years later would be directly attacked by Marcuse.
The same Freud amplifies his views in
Character and Anal Eroticism
, where he elaborates the following theory: certain abnormal types of personality, whose predominant traits are avarice and an obsession with orderliness, may be influenced by repressed anal desires. The pleasure which they derive from the accumulation of goods can arise from the unconscious nostalgia for the pleasure they felt when younger in retaining—a common activity among children—their feces. On the other hand, an obsession for order and cleanliness would have to be a compensation for the guilt which they have felt on account of their impulse to play with feces. As for the role which anal fixation may play in the development of homosexuality, Freud asserts that besides the influences already enumerated—Oedipus, Narcissus—one must take into account the fact that all of those impediments tend to interrupt the development of the child, by bringing about affective inhibitions which cause fixation in an anal phase, without the possibility of acceding to the final phase, which is to say, the genital.
Character and Anal Eroticism
, where he elaborates the following theory: certain abnormal types of personality, whose predominant traits are avarice and an obsession with orderliness, may be influenced by repressed anal desires. The pleasure which they derive from the accumulation of goods can arise from the unconscious nostalgia for the pleasure they felt when younger in retaining—a common activity among children—their feces. On the other hand, an obsession for order and cleanliness would have to be a compensation for the guilt which they have felt on account of their impulse to play with feces. As for the role which anal fixation may play in the development of homosexuality, Freud asserts that besides the influences already enumerated—Oedipus, Narcissus—one must take into account the fact that all of those impediments tend to interrupt the development of the child, by bringing about affective inhibitions which cause fixation in an anal phase, without the possibility of acceding to the final phase, which is to say, the genital.
To this assertion West responds that homosexuals, upon feeling themselves denied an avenue leading to normal genital relations, are forced to experiment with extra-genital erogenous zones, and in sodomy they encounter—after progressive adjustment—a type of mechanically direct but. not exclusive form of gratification. West adds that the male who practices sodomy is not necessarily fixated in the anal phase, just as the heterosexual who kisses his mate is not necessarily fixated in an oral phase. Finally, he points out that sodomy is not an exclusively homosexual phenomenon, since heterosexual couples also practice the same behavior, while individuals with an “anal character” (which is to say, avaricious, obsessed with cleanliness and order, etc.) do not necessarily feel inclined toward homosexuality.
Chapter 8
In
Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality
, Freud points out that repression, in general terms, can be traced back to the imposition of domination of one individual over others, this first individual having been none other than the father. Beginning by such domination, the patriarchal form of society was established, based upon the inferiority of the woman and the intensive repression of sexuality. Moreover, Freud links his theory of patriarchal authority to the rise of religion and in particular the triumph of monotheism in the West. On the other hand, Freud is especially preoccupied with sexual repression, inasmuch as he considers the natural impulses of a human being much more complicated than patriarchal society admits: given the undifferentiated capacity of babies to obtain sexual pleasure from all the parts of their body, Freud qualifies them as “polymorphous perverse.” As a part of the same concept, Freud also believes in the essentially bisexual nature of our original sexual impulse.
Along the same lines, and with reference to primary repression, Otto Rank considers the long development, which runs from paternal domination to a powerful system of state run by men, to be a prolongation of the same primary repression, whose purpose is the increasingly pronounced exclusion of women. In addition, Dennis Altman, in his
Homosexual Oppression and Liberation,
addressing himself specifically to sexual repression, relates it to a need, at the very origin of humanity, to produce a large quantity of children for economic ends and for purposes of defense.
Homosexual Oppression and Liberation,
addressing himself specifically to sexual repression, relates it to a need, at the very origin of humanity, to produce a large quantity of children for economic ends and for purposes of defense.
With regard to the same subject, in
Sex in History
the British anthropologist Rattray Taylor points out that, beginning with the fourth century
B.C.,
there occurs in the classical world an increase in sexual repression and a growth of the feeling of guilt, factors which facilitated a triumph of the Hebraic attitude, sexually more repressive, over the Greek one. According to the Greeks, the sexual nature of every human being combined elements which were as much homosexual as heterosexual.
Sex in History
the British anthropologist Rattray Taylor points out that, beginning with the fourth century
B.C.,
there occurs in the classical world an increase in sexual repression and a growth of the feeling of guilt, factors which facilitated a triumph of the Hebraic attitude, sexually more repressive, over the Greek one. According to the Greeks, the sexual nature of every human being combined elements which were as much homosexual as heterosexual.
Again Altman in the above-cited work expresses the view that Western societies specialize in sexual repression, legitimized as it is by the Judeo-Christian religious tradition. Such repression expresses itself in three interrelated forms: by associating sex with (1) sin, and its consequent sense of guilt; (2) institution of the family and procreation of children as its only justification; (3) rejection of all forms of sexual behavior outside of the genital and the heterosexual. Further on he adds that traditional “libertarians”—in terms of sexual repression—fight to change the first two forms but neglect the third. An example of the same would be Wilhelm Reich, in his book
The Function of the Orgasm
, where he affirms that sexual liberation is rooted in the perfect orgasm, which can only be achieved by means of heterosexual genital copulation among individuals of the same generation. And it is under the influence of Reich that other investigators would develop their mistrust of homosexuality and of contraceptives, since these would interfere with the attainment of perfect orgasms, and as a result would be detrimental to total sexual “freedom.”
The Function of the Orgasm
, where he affirms that sexual liberation is rooted in the perfect orgasm, which can only be achieved by means of heterosexual genital copulation among individuals of the same generation. And it is under the influence of Reich that other investigators would develop their mistrust of homosexuality and of contraceptives, since these would interfere with the attainment of perfect orgasms, and as a result would be detrimental to total sexual “freedom.”
Concerning sexual liberation, Herbert Marcuse in
Eros and Civilization
points out that the same implies more than mere absence of oppression; liberation requires a new morality and a revision of the notion of “human nature” itself. And later he adds that every real theory of sexual liberation must take into account the essentially polymorphous needs of human beings. According to Marcuse, in defiance of a society that employs sexuality as a means toward a useful end, perversions uphold sexuality as an end in itself; as a result, they lie outside the orbit of the ironclad principle of “performance,” which is to say, one of the basic repressive principles fundamental to the organization of capitalism, and thus they question, without proposing to do so, the very foundations of the latter.
Eros and Civilization
points out that the same implies more than mere absence of oppression; liberation requires a new morality and a revision of the notion of “human nature” itself. And later he adds that every real theory of sexual liberation must take into account the essentially polymorphous needs of human beings. According to Marcuse, in defiance of a society that employs sexuality as a means toward a useful end, perversions uphold sexuality as an end in itself; as a result, they lie outside the orbit of the ironclad principle of “performance,” which is to say, one of the basic repressive principles fundamental to the organization of capitalism, and thus they question, without proposing to do so, the very foundations of the latter.
Commenting on this manner of reasoning by Marcuse, Altman adds that at the point when homosexuality becomes exclusive and establishes its own economic norms, dispensing with its critical attitude toward the conventional forms of heterosexuals in order to attempt, instead, to copy the same, it too becomes a form of repression, as powerful a one as exclusive heterosexuality. And further on, commenting upon another radical Freudian, Norman O. Brown, as well as upon Marcuse, Altman infers that, in the last analysis, what we conceive of as “human nature” is no more than what has become the result of centuries of repression, an argument which implies, and in this respect Marcuse and Brown agree, the essential mutability of human nature.
Chapter 9
As a variation on the concept of repression, Freud introduces the term “sublimation,” understanding by that the mental operation through which problematic libidinal impulses are provided with an outlet. Such outlets for sublimation would include any activity—art, sports, manual labor—that permits use of the sexual energy considered to be excessive by the canons of our society. Freud draws a fundamental distinction between repression and sublimation by suggesting that the latter may be salutary, insofar as it is indispensable to the maintenance of a civilized community.
This position has been attacked by Norman O. Brown, author of
Life Against Death
, which on the contrary favors a return to the state of “poly-morphous perversion” discovered by Freud in infants, and thus implies the total elimination of repression. One of the reasons adduced by Freud in his defense of partial repression was the necessity to subjugate the destructive impulses of man, but Brown, as well as Marcuse, refutes this argument by maintaining that aggressive impulses do not exist as such, so long as the impulses of the libido—which are preexistent—find a mode of realization, that is to say, a means of satisfaction.
Life Against Death
, which on the contrary favors a return to the state of “poly-morphous perversion” discovered by Freud in infants, and thus implies the total elimination of repression. One of the reasons adduced by Freud in his defense of partial repression was the necessity to subjugate the destructive impulses of man, but Brown, as well as Marcuse, refutes this argument by maintaining that aggressive impulses do not exist as such, so long as the impulses of the libido—which are preexistent—find a mode of realization, that is to say, a means of satisfaction.
The criticism directed at Brown, in turn, is based upon the supposition that a humanity without bounds of restraint, that is to say, without repression, could never organize itself into any permanent activity. It is here that Marcuse interjects his concept of “surplus repression,” designating by such a term that part of sexual repression created to maintain the power of the dominant class, in spite of not proving to be indispensable to the maintenance of an organized society attending to the human necessities of all its constituents. Therefore, the principal advance that Marcuse presupposes in opposition to Freud would consist of the latter’s toleration for a certain type of repression in order to preserve contemporary society, whereas Marcuse deems it fundamental to change society, on the basis of an evolution that takes into account our original sexual impulses.
Such could be considered the basis of the accusation which representatives of the new tendencies have leveled against orthodox Freudian psychoanalysts, to the effect that the latter had sought—with an impunity that became undermined toward the end of the sixties—that their patients assume all personal conflict in order to facilitate their adaptation to the repressive society in which they found themselves, rather than to acknowledge the necessity for change in that society.
In
One-Dimensional Man
, Marcuse asserts that, originally, sexual instinct had no temporal and spatial limitations of subject and object, since sexuality is by nature “polymorphous perverse.” Going even further, Marcuse gives as an example of “surplus repression” not only our total concentration on genital copulation but also such phenomena as olfactory and gustatory repression in sexual life.
One-Dimensional Man
, Marcuse asserts that, originally, sexual instinct had no temporal and spatial limitations of subject and object, since sexuality is by nature “polymorphous perverse.” Going even further, Marcuse gives as an example of “surplus repression” not only our total concentration on genital copulation but also such phenomena as olfactory and gustatory repression in sexual life.
For his part, Dennis Altman, commenting favorably in his own aforementioned book on these assertions by Marcuse, adds that liberation must not only be aimed at eliminating sexual constraint, but also at providing the practical possibility of realizing those desires. Moreover he maintains that only recently have we become aware of how much of what we considered normal and instinctive, especially with respect to family structuring and sexual relations, is actually learned, and as a result how much of what up to now has been considered natural would have to be unlearned, including competitive and aggressive attitudes outside of the sexual realm. And along the same lines, Kate Millett, the theoretician of women’s liberation, says in her book
Sexual Politics
that the purpose of sexual revolution ought to be a freedom without hypocrisy, untainted by the exploitive economic bases of traditional sexual alliances, meaning matrimony.
Sexual Politics
that the purpose of sexual revolution ought to be a freedom without hypocrisy, untainted by the exploitive economic bases of traditional sexual alliances, meaning matrimony.
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