Murder on the Mind: Tyranical Power and other Points Along the Perverse Spectrum

This paper illustrates the breadth and depth of the spectrum of perversion and perversity as currently represented in the psychoanalytic literature, raises questions about recent tendencies to include a host of diverse-seeming phenomena under the same conceptual umbrella, and strives to demonstrate what these phenomena have in common that justifies lumping them together under the same rubric. One end of this spectrum is represented by the employment of simple fetishes introduced into a sexual scene in order to promote sexual arousal. Moving along the continuum, one encounters increasing complex behavioral patterns including the enactment of scripts that actualize one's perverse fantasies, including the assumption of complementary roles (e.g. sadomasochism) that equally serve the needs, and represent the desires, of both parties involved. A unique clinical entity, ‘perverse modes of relatedness,’ lies on the extreme end of the spectrum, representing the reification of the relationship as it becomes little more than a vehicle to take possession and control one's object for the gratification of one's sole needs and desires. What each of these phenomena share in common is both the insertion of a thing or condition — ranging from a simple fetishistic object to an elaborate style of relating that reduces the other into pawn played upon the pervert's chessboard, between the two ‘relating’ objects as well as a less than honest relationship with reality.

(Final version accepted 4 August 2009)