In his classic study, Perversion: The Erotic Form of Hatred, the psychoanalyst Robert Stoller argues that at the heart of perversion is mystery. In the perverse act, a felt and threatening limit to what is knowable, or masterable by knowledge, is repeatedly, coercively and violently subdued.
Stoller argues that the core of the perverse act is a desire to harm others; that perversion is an erotic form of hatred - a fantasy that is acted out. Moreover, Stoller suggests that perversion is a habitual, preferred aberration necessary for the person’s full erotic satisfaction and that it is primarily motivated by hostility. Hostility in perversion takes form in a fantasy of revenge. The hostility is often hidden in the actions that make up the perversion, with the perversion itself serving to convert childhood trauma into adult triumph. In order to create the greatest excitement, the perversion must also portray itself as an act of risk-taking.
Whatever the ethical agenda, in other words, there is something potentially murderous in our fervour, our frenzied desire to know, as well as in our commitment to a virtuous reckoning of ourselves (the belief in innate good turns bad).Crucially for Stoller, if the perverse impulse is more or less undesirable for the smooth running of our personal erotic affairs, it is no less the precondition of our participation in the so-called civilised world. No mind can free itself completely from the aim of mastering the onslaughts of the world. No human being completely escapes perversion:
Crucially for Stoller, if the perverse impulse is more or less undesirable for the smooth running of our personal erotic affairs, it is no less the precondition of our participation in the so-called civilised world. No mind can free itself completely from the aim of mastering the onslaughts of the world. No human being completely escapes perversion:
For describing an ubiquitous mechanism, ‘perversion’ is too strong; it cannot rid itself of moral taint. To the point here is a remark of Freud’s:
‘No healthy person, it appears, can fail to make some addition that might be called perverse to the normal sexual aim; and the universality of this finding is in itself enough to show how inappropriate it is to use the word perversion as a term of reproach.’
Stoller argues that the core of the perverse act is a desire to harm others; that perversion is an erotic form of hatred - a fantasy that is acted out. Moreover, Stoller suggests that perversion is a habitual, preferred aberration necessary for the person’s full erotic satisfaction and that it is primarily motivated by hostility. Hostility in perversion takes form in a fantasy of revenge. The hostility is often hidden in the actions that make up the perversion, with the perversion itself serving to convert childhood trauma into adult triumph. In order to create the greatest excitement, the perversion must also portray itself as an act of risk-taking.
Whatever the ethical agenda, in other words, there is something potentially murderous in our fervour, our frenzied desire to know, as well as in our commitment to a virtuous reckoning of ourselves (the belief in innate good turns bad).Crucially for Stoller, if the perverse impulse is more or less undesirable for the smooth running of our personal erotic affairs, it is no less the precondition of our participation in the so-called civilised world. No mind can free itself completely from the aim of mastering the onslaughts of the world. No human being completely escapes perversion:
Crucially for Stoller, if the perverse impulse is more or less undesirable for the smooth running of our personal erotic affairs, it is no less the precondition of our participation in the so-called civilised world. No mind can free itself completely from the aim of mastering the onslaughts of the world. No human being completely escapes perversion:
For describing an ubiquitous mechanism, ‘perversion’ is too strong; it cannot rid itself of moral taint. To the point here is a remark of Freud’s:
‘No healthy person, it appears, can fail to make some addition that might be called perverse to the normal sexual aim; and the universality of this finding is in itself enough to show how inappropriate it is to use the word perversion as a term of reproach.’
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