Abstract

LIMA, Vinícius Moreira. Lacan, kinship norms and masculine castration. Tempo psicanal. [online]. 2020, vol.52, n.2, pp. 6-27. ISSN 0101-4838.

In this work, we try to present some contributions of Lacanian psychoanalysis to a few points of tension sustained by feminist theorists Gayle Rubin and Judith Butler. We find our point of departure in acknowledging the fact that these authors read Lacan alongside with the theory of kinship by Lévi-Strauss, which implies that psychoanalysis is sometimes reduced to an instrument of reiteration of the social norms it intends to describe. Differently, we try to argue that, in addressing the problem of the Father and of the phallus in psychoanalytic theory, Lacan's work opens up the possibility of sustaining a critical distance in relation to these norms, particularly from the position of the psychoanalyst, who gathers from its clinic the failures of the normative functioning of the social. Thus, beyond the semblances of power and consistency disseminated by the virile ideal, we are drawn to observe that patriarchy only sustains itself with a neurotic myth, meanwhile the phallus in the real (in spite of the phallic markers that seem to confer a symbolic privilege to its bearers) constitutes an affliction to the male, dismissing him from any security in its approach to sex. Hence, we sustain the hypothesis that social norms seek to cover up paternal castration and the masculine anxiety before the phallus, which remain hidden by the semblances of virility.

Keywords : psychoanalysis; patriarchy; Name-of-the-Father; phallus; castration.

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