The problematics of the sexual difference: Lacan and the French psychoanalytic feminism

Abstract

Thinking the relationship between Lacanian psychoanalysis and the French psychoanalytic feminism theories has been a productive effort for both psychoanalytic clinic and for social criticism. French feminism contains prominent authors in this debate, such as Irigaray and Kristeva, whose works have largely shaped Butler's theory of sexual gender. Such feminism appeals to Lacan's theories, especially the role of language in the subject of the unconscious; at other times, they criticize some psychoanalytical references that supposedly would still be sustained in phallogocentrism. There is, however, a point of impasse in these feminist theories: they would not have been extensively dedicated to Lacanian developments concerning the theory of sexuation, interpreting psychoanalytic notions such as phallus, juissance and the innovative logic that rules the formulas of sexuation still under the bias of patriarchy. We propose to investigate pathways to overcome this impasse thought the Lacan's seminars XVIII to XXI, which could bring innovative perspectives to sexual difference research and induce a review about the criticism that French psychoanalytic feminism addresses to Lacan. (AU)