Introduction to the Roundtable

Four of the most important psychoanalytic thinkers in the fields of gender and sexuality came together in the Spring of 2012, at the invitation of the Toronto Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis, to discuss with each other the state of the field. They are Adrienne Harris, Virginia Goldner, Muriel Dimen, and Ken Corbett. This journal owes its very existence to having had two of the four as its past editors, one as its current Editor-in-Chief, the fourth in a crucial supporting role. We are very lucky to be able to publish a transcript of that discussion in its entirety.

Each of the participants prepared one question for each of the others. As you will see as you start reading, the questions aimed at historical areas of research as well as more current ones. The answers provide us with rare, sometimes personal, always rigorous and illuminating snapshots of the work and the place of these minds now.

One might think that the drive behind the life-work of these four trailblazers, to introduce into psychoanalytic discourse the sensibilities of the women’s and queer liberation movements, and the theories these movements inspired, has been successful. One might think that at this point psychoanalysis is in fully aware of the dominance and complexity of gender construction. One might think it is no longer homophobic. One might think, in short, that it has become more of a practice aiming for personal meaning and freedom, less of a slow motion heteronormative indoctrination tool, as it has been rightfully criticized to be. We have clearly made great progress, but there is still much to be done.

The psychoanalytic discourse in the English-speaking world has undergone significant change. Gender is fully present as a crucial concept. Views on sexuality are complex and nuanced, and, one dare say, more affirmative across political strands. But perspectives on gender and sexuality have not evolved in the same way, or to the same degree, in continental Europe or in Latin America.