In this essay, the author explores the concept of “affirmative consent” as a sociolegal strategy for reducing sexual violence on college campuses. Meanings and implications of “consent” are considered from a psychoanalytic perspective, using the work of Laplanche and relational psychoanalysis to consider the fit between the construct of consent as it is invoked in contemporary sexual politics and our psychoanalytic understandings of sexual experience. The discourse of consent is also explored from the standpoint of queer and feminist theory. Finally, a brief clinical vignette is offered to illuminate the real challenges that are encountered in the effort to use language to communicate about sex. The author suggests an interdisciplinary, nonregulatory, exploratory approach to addressing the problem of sex and sexual violence on college campuses.