Straight Male Modern: A Cultural Critique of Psychoanalysis

Abstract

Major psychoanalytic thinkers from Freud to Ricoeur to Lacan considered the Oedipus complex the key to explaining the human psyche, human sexuality - even culture itself. But, in fact, they were merely theorizing males. In Straight Male Modern, John Brenkman assesses the benchmark concepts of Freudian thought, building on feminist criticisms of psychoanalysis and the new history of sexuality. Psychoanalytic questions become political questions: How do the norms of hetereosexuality and masculinity emerge within the modern society and culture? How do the institutions of heterosexuality and patriarchy shape identity and desire? What makes heterosexuality compulsory in our society?.

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