Destin de la pulsion épistémophilique du chercheur. L’exemple de « William H. Masters »

Abstract

This article focuses on the issue of epistemophilic impulse for the researcher through the example of the character William H. Masters, as he's portrayed in the television show “Masters of Sex”, created in 2013 by Michelle Ashford and inspired by the original eponymous novel by Thomas Maier. The television show retraces the course of the first two researchers who are interested, from the late 1950s, to the subject of sexuality in particular through these physiological responses. The work of Masters and Johnson revolutionizing the habits of thousands of Americans, before knowing worldwide fame. Our work proposes a psychoanalytic reading of the psychic functioning of the protagonist William Masters; our thinking takes as its starting point the researcher's “impulse of knowing” and questions its construction through different steps of sexuality and its impact on the choice of love objects.