Freud’s Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality is one of the grounding texts of 20th century European thinking. In it Freud develops a highly original theory of sexuality for which hysteria (and pathology in general) serves a model to understand human existence. Freud published this text five times during his lifetime. The later editions tend to hide the revolutionary potential of his insights. This article wants to reconstruct this potential and in doing so it wants to make clear in what respect Freud’s thinking remains a permanent challenge to contemporary (psychoanalytic) thinking about human existence. This article especially emphasises Freud's (ambivalent) deconstruction and critique of sexual normalisation.