Publisher's Synopsis
What Does It Mean to Make Love? shows how the choice of gender does not conform to anatomy and is based on an often-unrecognised psychic bisexuality.Everyone chooses a gender by repressing the other gender, which becomes the site of both an attraction and a conflict, a "war of the sexes", the contingencies of which animate desire. Gérard Pommier explores aspects of phantasies, desire, and perversion as part of "sexual machinery" before considering the question of orgasm. Pommier's work demonstrates that the analysis of orgasm brings out a political dimension, and that aspects of both social and personal life are illuminated by the study of how we think - consciously and unconsciously - about orgasm and the role ascribed to it.This book makes valuable contributions to the study of sexuality and will be of interest to all psychoanalysts and students of psychoanalysis, as well as those in the fields of gender studies, anthropology, and psychology.
