Perversion: The Erotic Form of Hatred (Maresfield Library)

259 Pages·1986·7.284 MB·English

by  Robert J. Stoller

PERVERSION
The Erotic Form of Hatred
Robert J. Stolle~M .D .
Professor of Psychiatry,
Department of Psychiatry,
School of Medicine
University of California at Los Angeles
MARESFIELD LIBRARY
LONDON
KARNAC BOOKS

First published in 1975
Reprinted 1986w ith permission of Pantheon Books,
New York by H. Karnac (Books) Ltd,
Karnac Books Ltd.
58 Cloucester Road, London SW7
118 Finchley Road
and I 18 Finchley Road, London NW3
London NW3 5HT
IISSBBNN 9o7 984 604 93496 2403 6 9 20 1
Printed In Great Brltaln by BPC Wheatons Ltd, Exeter
Contents
Introduction
Part I: Definition
I Definitions
a Impact of New Advances in Sex Research
on Psychoanalytic Theory
3 Variants: Aberrations That Are Not Perversions
4 Perversions: Aberrations That Are Not Variants
Part 11: Dynamics: Trauma, Hostility, Risk,
and Revenge
5 Pornography and Perversion
6 Hostility and Mystery in Perversion
7 Perversion: Risk versus Boredom
8 Symbiosis Anxiety and the Development
of Masculinity
g A Crime as a Sexual Act
Part Ill: Social Issues
lo Is Homosexuality a Diagnosis?
I I Sex as Sin
I a The Necessity of Perversion
Acknowledpents
I want to thank Nathan Leites, Ph.D., whose concern for
clear and precise language again served as a conscience
I could only sometimes evade, and my secretary, Thelma
Guffan, whose patience and skill continues to ease the
effort of writing.
Robert J. Stoller, M.D.,i s a psychoanalyst
and Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California at
Los Angeles School of Medicine, where he teaches medical
students and psychiatric residents. He is a member of the
American Psychoanalytic Association and received his
training at the Los Angeles Psychoanalytic Institute.
Professor Stoller is the author of numerous papers on the
development of gender identity. He has previously published
three books on the subject, Sex and Gender: On the Development
of Masculinity and Femininity (1968)~Sp litting (1973) and Sex
and Gender Volume II: The Transsexual Experiment (1975). In
addition to his research in gender identity, Professor Stoller
has a continuing interest and involvement in research in
medical education.

Introduction
Why in this enlightened day would one choose to entitle
a work "perversion," a term that is becoming passe? The
great research published in the last decade or two has
taught us that aberrant sexual behavior is found in other
species, is ubiquitous in man, and is the product of brain
and hormonal factors that can function independently of
anything we might call psyche. Then too, their findings
make researchers regret society's moral stance that sex-
ual aberration is unnatural-sinful-and the repressive
social action that follows. Thus, in ridding ourselves of
the concept of perversion, we have the tempting combi-
nation of good research serving a humane cause. Yet it
is my contention, explored in the body of this book, that
perversion exists.
The connotations of the word are unpleasant and
have a flavor of morality and therefore of free will that
is antiquated in these days of science and determinism.
It is to avoid just such connotations that the softer
terms "variant," "deviation," or "aberration" are used.
More and more these days, decent people--many of
them scientists-are concerned about the price their
fellows, and even more, whole societies, pay in the
effort to suppress victimless aberrant sexual behavior.
And so, in the name of decency, it has become the
style, using the trappings of Science, to try to get rid of
the concept of perversion. This is done net only by