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This book is made up of contributions by five psychoanalysts (Giovanni De Renzis, author of the Preface, Fausto Petrella, Olga Pozzi, Sarantis Thanopulos, and Matilde Vigneri), by one molecular biologist (Riccardo Cortese), and by one historian of religion (Marcello Massenzio). As Pozzi, the co-editor of this volume with Thanopulos, writes, ‘Studying an issue such as homosexuality today as psychoanalysts cannot but confront us with the problematic question as to whether it is a normal or pathological phenomenon’ (p. 79).
What Freud has to say about sexuality in his Three essays (1905) remains an unavoidable starting point for anyone who wishes to discuss not only matters of sexual orientation, but also the dichotomies of nature vs. culture and instinct vs. learned behaviour. The authors, in their different ways, break away from the clichés which, following Freud, have characterized the ‘psychoanalysis of sexuality’, clichés which in recent decades have assumed a homophobic stance far removed from Freud's original intentions. The result is a book which does not attempt to come up with a single, homogenous and coherent theory of homosexuality, but rather seeks to convey the numerous perspectives on the subject. All of these, however, have in common a counterintuitive approach regarding the common-sense criteria of ‘normality’ in respect of homosexuality.
Among the most meaningful aspects of this approach (in De Renzis and Thanopulos's essays) are the questions raised about the traditional understanding of procreation as the (natural) primary aim of sexuality in the evolution of the species. The authors challenge the notion that human sexuality cannot exist independently of procreation and of the decision to have a family, although Petrella's position seems more ambiguous.
The authors support their anti-essentialist vision regarding sexual identity by observing the behaviour of animals, ranging from the fruit-fly (which features in De Renzis's Preface) to the primate (dis