Psychoanalytical theory, sex and gender: dialogue in an anti-essentialist perspective

Abstract

This article discusses psychoanalytical contributions to studies on sexuality and gender. Freud's psychoanalytic theory was criticized by many scholars of gender studies that have recognized, in the Freudian hypotheses, reductionist and determinist attitudes. However, Freud was one of the first authors to propose readings on sexuality precisely avoiding both the reductionism in the understanding of certain sexual practices – failing to consider them under a psychopathological perspective – and the consideration that there would be a predetermination in sexuality and gender, in biological terms. Based on historical and epistemological study on the topic of sexuality in psychoanalysis, and by the analysis of a Freudian clinical case, we propose an anti-essentialist reading that avoids reducing issues of subjectivity and focus on the understanding of subjectivity inscribed in the sociocultural domain.