Straight Male Modern: A Cultural Critique of Psychoanalysis

Major psychoanalytic thinkers from Freud to Ricoeur to Lacan considered the Oedipus complex the key to explaining the human psyche and human sexuality, even culture itself. But, in fact, they were merely theorizing males.

In this title, originally published in 1993, the author reassesses the benchmark concepts of Freudian thought, building on feminist criticisms of psychoanalysis and the new history of sexuality. The psychoanalytic questions become political questions: How do the norms of heterosexuality and masculinity themselves emerge within modern society and culture? How do the institutions of compulsory heterosexuality and modern patriarchy shape identity and desire? What make heterosexuality compulsory in our society?

Brenkman argues that the larger social world is part and parcel of the Oedipus complex. He challenges psychoanalysis to reinvent its cultural project, as a therapeutics and an ethics, by recovering the moral-political dimension in its approach to family, sexuality and gender.

Straight Male Modern casts a new light on psychoanalysis’s contribution to modern life, revealing the richness of the Freudian tradition’s encounter with modern politics and culture, and the poverty of its response.

1114594381
Straight Male Modern: A Cultural Critique of Psychoanalysis

Major psychoanalytic thinkers from Freud to Ricoeur to Lacan considered the Oedipus complex the key to explaining the human psyche and human sexuality, even culture itself. But, in fact, they were merely theorizing males.

In this title, originally published in 1993, the author reassesses the benchmark concepts of Freudian thought, building on feminist criticisms of psychoanalysis and the new history of sexuality. The psychoanalytic questions become political questions: How do the norms of heterosexuality and masculinity themselves emerge within modern society and culture? How do the institutions of compulsory heterosexuality and modern patriarchy shape identity and desire? What make heterosexuality compulsory in our society?

Brenkman argues that the larger social world is part and parcel of the Oedipus complex. He challenges psychoanalysis to reinvent its cultural project, as a therapeutics and an ethics, by recovering the moral-political dimension in its approach to family, sexuality and gender.

Straight Male Modern casts a new light on psychoanalysis’s contribution to modern life, revealing the richness of the Freudian tradition’s encounter with modern politics and culture, and the poverty of its response.

36.99 In Stock
Straight Male Modern: A Cultural Critique of Psychoanalysis

Straight Male Modern: A Cultural Critique of Psychoanalysis

by John Brenkman
Straight Male Modern: A Cultural Critique of Psychoanalysis

Straight Male Modern: A Cultural Critique of Psychoanalysis

by John Brenkman

eBook

$36.99  $48.95 Save 24% Current price is $36.99, Original price is $48.95. You Save 24%.

Available on Compatible NOOK devices, the free NOOK App and in My Digital Library.
WANT A NOOK?  Explore Now

Related collections and offers


Overview

Major psychoanalytic thinkers from Freud to Ricoeur to Lacan considered the Oedipus complex the key to explaining the human psyche and human sexuality, even culture itself. But, in fact, they were merely theorizing males.

In this title, originally published in 1993, the author reassesses the benchmark concepts of Freudian thought, building on feminist criticisms of psychoanalysis and the new history of sexuality. The psychoanalytic questions become political questions: How do the norms of heterosexuality and masculinity themselves emerge within modern society and culture? How do the institutions of compulsory heterosexuality and modern patriarchy shape identity and desire? What make heterosexuality compulsory in our society?

Brenkman argues that the larger social world is part and parcel of the Oedipus complex. He challenges psychoanalysis to reinvent its cultural project, as a therapeutics and an ethics, by recovering the moral-political dimension in its approach to family, sexuality and gender.

Straight Male Modern casts a new light on psychoanalysis’s contribution to modern life, revealing the richness of the Freudian tradition’s encounter with modern politics and culture, and the poverty of its response.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781317366737
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Publication date: 11/06/2015
Series: Routledge Library Editions: Psychoanalysis
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 270
File size: 603 KB

About the Author

John Brenkman

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments.  Introduction.  Theorizing Males  1. Freud  2. Ricoeur  3. Lacan  The Freudian Structure of Feeling  4. Rat Man  5. Hidden Faults  6. Family, Community, Polis  7. Family Histories  Oedipus: Individual Myth and Cultural Pathology  8. Like Father, Like Son  9. "Mother/Whore"  10. The Name-of-the-Father  11. Mothering and the Promises of Autonomy  Conclusion  12. Why a Cultural Critique of Psychoanalysis.  Notes.  Index

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews