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Paul Verhaeghe's collection of essays on Freudo-Lacanian psychoanalysis is unified by an underlying thesis: psychoanalysis is not about “sexuality,” construed in either a narrow or wide sense. Strains of vulgar Freudianism mindlessly set the complexities of cognition to the monotonous refrain of “pee-pee, caca.” More sophisticated readers of Freud seek to save the master by pursuing a defensive strategy whereby it is conceded that Freud does indeed place sexuality at the center of psychical life, but that what Freud means by sexuality is much broader than is usually acknowledged. Many Lacanian interpreters of the Freudian legacy pursue just such a strategy, transforming Lacan, in turn, into a theorist obsessed with the (non-existent) sexual relationship. Thanks to an unspoken general consensus, doubts about whether or not sexuality really is the dominant motif in the unconscious are effectively stifled. The genuine merit of Verhaeghe's book lies in his total break with the viewpoint that the psyche is organized exclusively around sexuality. Verhaeghe rejects this cherished analytic assumption by unambiguously relegating the “sexualized” formations of the unconscious to a residual, secondary position. What then, for Verhaeghe, is sexuality secondary to within psychical life?
Verhaeghe answers this query in several ways. However, the foundation of his approach resides in Lacan's register theory. Verhaeghe's reconsideration of the role of sexuality in psychoanalysis is executed vis-à-vis establishing a series of aligned distinctions rooted in the Lacanian distinction between, on one side, the Real,