Making Theoretical Space: Psychoanalysis and Lesbian Sexual Difference

Abstract

A deluge of articles using psychoanalysis appeared in the past decade in the humanities and psychology, evidence that psychoanalysis has gripped the imaginations and suited the research projects of scholars in many fields.' Yet I also know other scholars who, having been introduced to psychoanalysis at some point in their careers, consider a dead end. The latter are less likely to write journal articles addressing their intimidation by, lack of interest in, ignorance of, or distaste for psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis thus appears to be an either/or proposition: one either gets and uses or one doesn't. Scholars who use psychoanalysis--the insiders -disagree about what it means, and they criticize psychoanalytic theory, revise and even (as in the cases of Luce Irigaray or Judith Butler) subvert it. Not getting it, however, means a choice to turn one's back on the network of psychoanalytic theories. Viewed from an outsider's perspective, psychoanalysis surrounds itself with a defensive screen