Die Granularität von Geschlechtlichkeit

With new psychosexual phenomena, e.g. fluidification and ambiguity of gender and increasing distance from sex binaries, sexology and psychoanalysis are faced with the tasks of reviewing and modifying their concepts and fundamental views for better suitability with new social and individual realities of life. Based on Freud’s Oedipus complex as well as on his concept of so-called constitutional bisexuality, this essay deals with Freud’s receptions, with the question of how gender and sex can be conceived in a more fine-grained and individual way by means of psychoanalytic approaches today. The focus here is Jean Laplanche’s general theory of seduction. The central concern of this essay is to elaborate its implications for nonbinary gender and sex. Finally, the resulting limits of the possibilities to grasp and formalise gender in contrast to narratives of binary gender are pointed out, and accompanying affects such as fear and defence are addressed.