Quando o amor devasta

Abstract

This paper focuses on love and on the phenomena of devastation, questioning Lacan’s assertion when he says that “love makes up for the lack of sexual relation”. It is divided into three parts and a small conclusion. The first part resorts to works by Freud and Lacan, showing that the former deals with the theme concentrating particularly on the mother-daughter relationship and female sexuality, while the latter refers as well to the devastation a man cause a woman. In the second part, the paper addresses the case of Peter, a subject who suffers from hatredlove. In the third part, Racine’s tragedy, Phaedra, is treated as a clinical case. The final part then, besides mentioning the common points between both cases, it points to a few more differences between love and the sexual act.