Hatred of the Phallus

For some years now, issues related to procreation, sexuality, and insanity have been subjected in our so-called “advanced” societies to a treatment which, from the psychoanalyst's point of view, deserves attention. The admittedly rather violent title of this article seems best suited to qualify the issues involved in certain approaches to human problems. Such will at least be the subject of this article, which will mainly examine the new perspectives on paternity and maternity.

Of course, it is not by coincidence that we have chosen the three domains of procreation, sexuality, and insanity. They are all essentially human, insofar as they involve the relation of the subject to the Other, in which the subject is invited to, addressed by, and confronted with the unavoidable necessity of an ethical choice. By defining the relation to the Other as central in this problematics, I want to stress several of its aspects. First, the subject is committed to his or her relation to “jouissance” and speech. Second, the subject is “asked” to act ethically—that is, to make a choice, to take a position that can be justified from no other place but the subject's; such an act is not determined by a logic that would dictate its meaning, but is necessarily without a basis, while requiring that the subject be responsible for it and bear its consequences. And third, this act and this position are always “received” from the Other's place, where the conditions for believability are stated. In his or her relation to the Other, on the most essential issues, the subject is indeed faced with a total absence of guarantee and must ultimately rely on the law and the Other's good faith, both when s/he is in the position of the subject and when s/he is for the other the place that is being addressed.

It is precisely this hole, which Willy Apollon calls a “default of knowledge” (défaut de savoir), that will be masked by the development of a certain type of argumentation. Indeed, in these essentially hu