Taking Shelter from Queer (original) (raw)
Related papers
Psychoanalytic Practice and Queer Theory: Queering the Clinic
Studies in Gender and Sexuality, 2019
dialogue between queer theory and psychoanalytic practice. The book provides a wide range of interesting intersections and in doing so illustrates how queer concepts can be accommodated in the clinic. As prudently noted by Gherovici (this volume), psychoanalysis and queer theory may converge but do not overlap. In that sense, any response to their complex encounter should not so much focus on what has already been chartered or explored, as on bringing to the fore the elisions and illuminations this convergence may produce. In order to do so one must remain faithful to the spirit of the queer; one must speak, in jest and in earnest, from a 'different' perspective; you may assume that today we are Deleuzians in our questions. Question one: play, dramatis personae and key metaphors(?) Queer is giddiness. The injunction to the analysts to not remain somber (Farina 2017: 96) is attractive, but does it challenge the sobriety of psychoanalysis in general? Farina invites the analyst to be drunk on love and to remain at a remove from the erotic object of analysis (2017: 96) Multiple possibilities open between the words 'not', 'remaining', 'drunk', 'remove' 'object'. But can queer theory radicalise the clinic, or is the latter so settled by its practices that can withstand the shocks of a queer interrogation? 'Queer' can be comfortably accommodated in the psychoanalytic realm by either being closely aligned with jouissance, or by being situated in the broad realm of identity as failure. But, is it enough to say that jouissance is queer (Farina 2017: 94)? Reducing a philosophical and political mode of interrogation (queer) to affect or indeed locating 'it' in the realm of Real deterrotorialises significant debates into the realm of the ineffable.
(A2)‘Queer Theory’ Routledge Anthony Elliot.docx
In a relatively short period of time, Queer theory has been established as a major academic area of study, integrated into almost all disciplines, particularly the humanities and the social sciences. This perseverance in the realm of the halls of academia, however, has not led to a consensus on what exactly it is or what it represents. In its most general sense, Queer theory has encouraged a reinterpretation of standard views about peoples and cultures. As such, its development was a reaction: A reaction against noninclusion, against marginalization, against discrimination. It was also a reaction to the movements of the 1960s and what some judged to be failed theory incorporated into the organization of resistance. For many, then, it is simply an objectification of resistance to dominant theories and models of social life. For others, (and this is more in the public realm) its origins were a statement of an undefined "anti-establishment" position that have now become settled in post-secondary departments in much the same way that past social movements such as Women's Studies, Afro-American Studies, and the more broadly based "ethnic studies" are now mainstream fields of academic discourse, so that we can now say that Queer Studies and Queer theory are part of the same enterprise.
Wallenberg & Thanem 2017 What's wrong with queer?.pdf
In this short piece we take issue with the current separatist tendencies that are being expressed in certain parts of the queer community. We illustrate how this compares with central ideas in proto-queer thought and queer theory, and how it risks undermining the possibility of a queer dialogue and queer politics.
Prologue: Queering and Decolonizing Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 2020
An open matrix of possibilities, gaps, intersections, dissonances, resonances, failures, or excesses of meaning emerges when the constituent elements of someone's gender and sexuality are not (or cannot be) constrained to monolithic meanings. These are the political, linguistic, epistemological, and figurative adventures and experiences of those of us who like to define ourselves (among many other possibilities) as female and aggressive lesbians, mystical fagots, fantasizers, drag queens and drag kings, clones, leathers, women in suits, feminist women or feminist men, masturbators, madwomen, divas, snap!, manly submissive guys, mythomaniacs, transsexuals, wannabes, poofs, truckers, men who define themselves as lesbians sleeping with men […], and all those who are able to love them, learn from them, and identify with them. (Kosofsky-Sedgwick, 1998, p. 115) 1 In these words, Eve Kosofsky-Sedgwick (1998) attempts to capture the flamboyant inclusiveness of the term "queer." Weirdness and eccentricity, insult reinvented and transformed into proud selfdetermination, activism, and political performance: the overarching and historically contingent "Queer" was capitalized, conceptualized, and introduced into the academic world by Teresa De Lauretis (1991) to epitomize the problematization of marginalized subjectivities. In this heterogenous field of "de-subjugated knowledge," 2 subjectification or subjectivation-that is, the process of becoming a subject-is understood as a complex interweave of sexuality, gender, class, and race, which encompasses an intersectional perspective that conceives all identity categories as an arsenal of oppressive strategies and subjection techniques to apply prevailing norms. Hence, Q/queer defines the gap from and resistance to the normative regime, thus becoming synonymous with identificatory, disciplinary, and epistemological multiplicity. This movement of thought that seeks to undermine repressive institutions and traditions by providing jubilant "counter texts" to hegemonic scenarios did not spare psychoanalysis, which was criticized for being an "integral part of the complex technology of social control and of the production of a grammar defining the identities of subaltern groups according to the specific interests and values of a dominant group" (see Minonne's comment on Ayouch's article, p. 612). In line with many other feminist and queer theorists, Paul B. Preciado (2019) argued that metapsychology constitutes a colonial and capitalist "techno-patriarchal" construction, 3 fostering an understanding of humanity based on the universalization of experiences specific to the white European bourgeoisie of the 20th century. As a consequence, alternative sex, gender, class, and race subjectivations remained unvoiced and invisible, which contributed to the traumatic reiteration and generational transmission of hierarchical norms. To fully grasp Preciado's argument, let us bear in mind that colonialism introduced the universal classification of populations in terms of the notion of "race," which replaced relations of socioeconomic superiority and inferiority established through domination in Eurocentric capitalism 4 with naturalized understandings of discrimination (Quijano, 2007). At the same time, European white settlers imported into a precolonial world that tolerated and even encouraged non-gendered, gynecratic, or egalitarian elements a rigid system of a biologically determined sexual dimorphism governed by male supremacy (Allen, 1986; Oyewùmi, 1997). So the "coloniality of power" does not just refer to racial classification or its euphemistic distinction of skin color (Quijano, 2007). It further constitutes a "coloniality of gender" or CONTACT Nicolas Evzonas, Ph.D.
From here to queer? Pitfalls and possibilities
2009
In this article we consider the relationship between lesbian and gay psychology, latterly known as lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer (LGBTQ) psychology and queer theory. We signal some ways that the field could become more intersectional by, for example, taking gender seriously, before turning our attention to queer theory. We explore some of the critiques of incorporating queer theory more fully into the field. In conclusion, we suggest that a tentative queering of LGBTQ psychology will provide fruitful possibilities for the future of the field.
Studies in Gender and Sexuality, 2018
Clinical psychoanalysis and queer theory have at their core a deep exploration of sexuality. Although the link between shame and sex has generated a strong theoretical reflection (Butler, 1993; Dimen, 2013; Saketopoulou, 2013, 2014; Sedgwick, 1993; Stein, 1997, 2012; Straker, 2007), shame is in this literature primarily a threatening affect in need of psychic elaboration. In contrast, I look at shame as a critical and surprising intervention provoked by the analyst. I argue that analysts perform in their work not only psychic labor but also “excessive” nonverbal states which challenge the established boundaries of the analytic relationship. I show that such moments function as “cognitive strikes,” which can be productively deployed by analysts to reap their benefits. The aim of my argument is to show that the analysts “enter the perverse” when they momentarily stop processing difficult mental states. According to the professional ideal of “mentalization” (Fonagy & Target, 1996), psychoanalysts are put in the position to permanently do cognitive work. Yet refusing this demand offers the analyst the freedom to shift the relationship between a paid laborer and a beneficiary of therapeutic work. I theorize these noncognitive acts of “excessive shame” to expand on and criticize theories of queer performativity such as Judith Butler’s and Eve Sedgwick’s. The first contribution of this article is to draw the attention of clinicians to queer work that theorizes the emergent materiality of affects. The second contribution is to ask queer psychoanalytic theorists to take seriously the potential of surprising interventions which interrupt the demand to incessantly perform mental labor for their clients.