Podcast Summary
Podcast: New Books in Psychoanalysis
Episode: Gila Ashtor, "Homo Psyche: On Queer Theory and Erotophobia" (Fordham UP, 2021)
Host: Britt Eadlen
Guest: Gila Ashtor, Critical Theorist, Psychoanalyst, Columbia University
Date: November 22, 2021
Overview: Exploring Queer Theory’s Erotic Blind Spots
In this episode, host Britt Eadlen and psychoanalyst/critical theorist Gila Ashtor discuss Ashtor’s book "Homo Psyche: On Queer Theory and Erotophobia." The conversation delves into the historical and philosophical relationships between queer theory and psychoanalysis, centers the ongoing debate around sexuality’s place in subject formation, and unpacks the pervasive but subtle erotophobia in queer theoretical and psychoanalytic discourses. With a focus on Jean Laplanche’s work, the discussion pushes against reactionary rejections of psychoanalysis and advocates for a deeper engagement with sexuality, otherness, and relationality.
Key Discussion Points and Insights
1. Origins of "Homo Psyche": Revising Queer Theory's Foundations
[03:01]
- Ashtor describes her academic background: M.A. with Lauren Berlant, Ph.D. with Lee Edelman.
- Despite admiration for these foundational thinkers, she found “severe limitations” in their approaches and a recurring sense “something was really missing.”
- The book aims to “figure out what is that thing that’s missing” in queer theory, identifying areas where its provocative claims about sexuality run up against their own conceptual limits.
- She positions her work as simultaneously an homage and a critique: “I try to sort of embrace that because I do believe that’s sort of the spirit of queer theory anyway.”
Notable quote [03:01–04:49]:
“The book is really an attempt to figure out what is that thing that's missing, what is absent from some of these really stunning formulations.” —Gila Ashtor
2. Queer Theory’s History and Internal Debate
[04:49–06:46]
- Eadlen and Ashtor discuss the self-critical, internally divided nature of queer theory as a discipline.
- The field, although dynamic and eclectic, tends to become “wedded to some of its more popular formulations about itself,” leading to routine anti-normativity.
3. The Significance of the Title "Homopsyche"
[06:46–09:10]
- The title is an intentional play on "homo sapiens," signaling an alternative:
- It asserts the necessity of the psyche in queerness: “We need the psyche for queerness, we're not getting rid of it.”
- Insists that “the psyche is sexual…at its fundamental core,” with Laplanche as a decisive influence.
- Pushes back against queer theoretical strands that hope for the “end of subjectivity” or go “beyond the human, beyond consciousness.”
4. Defining Erotophobia and Its Subtle Mechanisms in Queer Theory
[09:10–11:34]
- Erotophobia: Defined not simply as direct aversion to sexuality, but as the denial of sexuality’s intrusive and fundamentally relational character.
- Importance of redefining sexuality: “Sexuality as intrusive, intersubjective and exogenous.”
- Erotophobia is not “in any obvious way” but is tied to a widespread misunderstanding or subtle suppression of sexuality’s full force in theory and practice.
5. Jean Laplanche vs. Freud and Lacan: The Sexual as Other to Itself
[13:12–16:43]
- Laplanche, initially faithful to Freud and Lacan, broke away after critiquing the limits of their sexual theories.
- He critiques Freud for reducing sexuality to instinct and Lacan for reducing it to language, emphasizing instead sexuality’s emergence from encounters with a sexual other.
- Laplanche frames both psychoanalysis and queer theory as disciplines which, despite starting from an impulse to analyze sexuality, continuously “lose their way.”
Notable quote [16:37]:
“Queer theory is not alone in sort of going…starting out with a wish to talk about sexuality…but there's a way that this keeps getting lost.” —Gila Ashtor
6. Queer Theory’s Estrangement from Psychoanalysis
[17:27–22:06]
- Contemporary students and scholars often have an “allergic reaction” to psychoanalysis, viewing it as passé or tainted.
- Ashtor questions what alternative frameworks can offer the same depth for thinking about subjectivity, if psychoanalysis is set aside.
7. Fatigue and Rigidity in Psychoanalytic Readings
[22:06–24:43]
- Overly familiar or rigid Lacanian applications have made psychoanalysis seem rote or sterile.
- Psychoanalysis, however, can and should offer creative and surprising approaches to texts and subjects.
Notable quote [24:43]:
“Psychoanalysis is a way of giving us a language to look for different things and allow us to be surprised by a text.” —Britt Eadlen
8. Is Resistance to Psychoanalysis a Defense Against Sexuality?
[24:43–27:41]
- There is a hypothesis that discomfort with psychoanalysis may actually be a defense against dealing with sexuality and its unsettling dimensions.
- Both psychoanalysis and queer theory, even at their most radical, often slide back into safer, more abstract, or politically palatable formulations that avoid confronting sexuality’s unruliness.
9. Laplanche and the Primacy of the Other in Sexuality
[30:39–36:18]
- Laplanche’s theory: sexuality is not innate but emerges from the infant’s encounter with the sexuality of caregiving adults.
- Both Freud (instinct) and Lacan (language) abstract sexuality; Laplanche insists on its interpersonal, traumatic, and exogenous origins.
- The avoidance of this insight represents “erotophobia” in theory—a retreat to autonomy and self-sufficiency.
Notable quote [36:18]:
“Sexuality leads us away from the familiar illusions about our own independence and toward the discovery of the other in us…he is not even the primary source of his own sexuality.” —Gila Ashtor, reading from her book [36:18]
10. Dependency, Relationality, and the Ethics of Queer Theory
[39:15–45:08]
- True maturity involves avowing our dependence on others, and this relationality is not just social but constitutive of self and sexuality.
- Attempts to escape this (e.g., by appealing to pure “bodies and pleasures” or surface relations) are symptomatic of a denial of psychic complexity and the anxiety aroused by otherness.
11. Critique of Butler and "Psychology as Ideology"
[49:21–51:54]
- Ashtor’s chapter critiques Judith Butler’s transformation of sexual subjectivity into a theory of ideology, losing the specificity of psychological life.
- Butler is deeply engaged with psychoanalysis, but reduces the psyche to the “empty vessel for the deposits of sociality,” missing “how a psychology would actually work.”
12. Meta-psychology: Beyond Simple Application
[52:26–56:50]
- Ashtor distinguishes between mere application of “the psyche” (often just Freud or Lacan) and meta-psychology: theory about theory.
- Advocates for an analytic method where psychoanalytic tools themselves are open to critique, revision, or replacement as needed for richer interpretation.
13. Queerness as Hermeneutic: Reading, Otherness, and the Erotic
[59:03–66:57]
- Both psychoanalysis and queer theory are “projects of reading”—ways of interpreting and engaging with the world and texts.
- Reading itself is inherently relational and erotic: “Reading is always this opening onto an other…” —Britt Eadlen [62:43]
- The erotic anxiety of reading lies in the unpredictable encounter with the Other, where the subject is unsettled and transformed.
14. Current and Future Work: Critical Theory, Cruel Optimism, and Psychoanalysis
[67:10–71:13]
- Ashtor is currently researching intersections of queer theory and critical theory (Frankfurt School), particularly interrogating concepts like “cruel optimism” (Lauren Berlant).
- She observes a renewed interest in the psychoanalytic dimension within contemporary critical theory, paralleling some of the debates already present in queer theory.
Memorable Quotes
- "We need the psyche for queerness, we’re not getting rid of it… I think it’s an attempt to insist… that the psyche is sexual."
– Gila Ashtor [07:47] - "Erotophobia… doesn’t mean…an obvious repression of sexuality. It’s a denial of sexuality as intrusive, intersubjective, and exogenous."
– Gila Ashtor [09:47] - "Sexuality cannot be dissociated from otherness and from the actual other person."
– Gila Ashtor [30:39] - "We are always interpreting things and…trying to explain why something is happening and what it means… but we should only count as metapsychology the theories that check out based on the standards of theory-building."
– Gila Ashtor [56:50] - "Reading is always this opening onto an other… inherent within reading is this kind of erotic mingling with the other."
– Britt Eadlen [62:43]
Timestamps for Key Segments
- 03:01 – Gila Ashtor’s intellectual background & motivation for “Homo Psyche”
- 06:46 – Discussion of the book title and its dual gesture
- 09:10 – Defining erotophobia and its theoretical implications
- 13:12 – Laplanche’s break with Freud and Lacan, critique of psychoanalysis’ limits
- 17:27–22:06 – The current generational skepticism toward psychoanalysis in the academy
- 24:43 – Is aversion to psychoanalysis a defense against sexuality?
- 30:39 – Laplanche’s theory: sexuality and the necessity of the sexual other
- 36:18 – Reading from the book: sexuality’s ‘decentering’ effect
- 49:21 – Critique of Butler; psychology vs. ideology in gender theory
- 52:26 – Meta-psychology: critiquing and evolving psychoanalytic reading
- 59:03 – Queerness as hermeneutic: reading as an erotic encounter
- 67:10 – Ashtor’s current research on critical theory, cruel optimism, and psychoanalysis
Conclusion
This episode offers a rich, nuanced conversation about the necessity of thinking both sexuality and subjectivity within and against the grain of queer theory and psychoanalysis. Gila Ashtor, drawing on Laplanche, presses listeners to grapple with the uncomfortable truth of relational, intrusive sexuality, and the subtle ways even radical discourses may evade its force. For scholars, students, and anyone interested in queer theory, psychoanalysis, or the evolving politics of the psyche, this dialogue provides both a deep critique and an invitation to creative, open-ended theoretical work.