We will bring you an overview about the concept of perversion So, let's understand what is perversion As a matter of fact, we will see examples of perversion, a much debated theme in Freud's work.

In Psychoanalysis, perversion is any manifestation of sexuality other than penis-vagina coitus Perhaps the association with cruelty is because sadism (which is a paraphilia or perversion that represents sexual satisfaction by imposing pain and control over a partner) is one of the best known forms of perversion. But many paraphilias (which are forms of perversion) do not seek the aspect of pain or control. This is why we understand that perversion in the psychoanalytic concept is not exhausted in the idea of cruelty.

Thus, even heterosexual relationships can be a form of perversion: for example, voyeuriism, exhibitionism, and sado-masochism.

The origin of human sexuality, according to Freud

Freud understands that human sexuality is, in origin, polymorphous and perverse.

This understanding is important in order to understand, from the beginning, that perversion and the multiplicity of libido and desire are inherently human aspects, and cannot be seen only under a pathological side.

Let's look at these aspects of the origin of human sexuality, according to Freud:

• polymorpha Freud says: sexuality has many forms, that is, multiple erogenous zones and many objects of desire; this begins in infancy, because there is a developmental process of situating this new body-mind of the baby in a possible place, hence for Freud there is a prevalence of erogenous zones at each stage of development: oral, anal, phallic;
• perverse : sexuality is not fixed from the start in a genital sexuality; the term "perverse" does not exactly have the sense of cruelty, as we will detail in the course of this article.

Neurosis, psychosis and perversion are the three structures or bases of psychic functioning, with (as a rule) the prevalence of one structure over the others, and this is different in each person.

Different definitions of perversion

This article would be frivolous if it said that there is a single way to define the topic.

For Freud, perversion would be a tendency of the subject to sexual practices other than "penis-vagina" coitus. It would not necessarily bring the very strong idea today of perversion as cruelty or "imposing violence against others".

The paraphilias (such as voyeurism, sadism, masochism, etc.) So it is correct in our view to associate the paraphilias with the concept of perversion. It should be noted that some of these paraphilias will not have a direct idea of violence. For example, there may be no violence in the exhibitionist perversion, if there is a consensus between the person exhibiting and the viewer.

Today, it is understood that these orientations of sexuality could only be considered as disorders or disturbances if they bring physical or psychological discomfort :

• the subject itself (because it is something averse to his desire, as in not recognizing himself in a certain sexuality) and/or
• to other people (by being averse to the other's desire, as in the case of a sexual assault).

The idea of perversion has, over time, broadened. It is understood as a polysemic term (multiple meanings). Depending on the author, the time and the focus of approach, perversion can be understood as:

• Synonym of paraphilias (gender, in the sense of general ), each paraphilia (sadism, voyeurism, etc.) being a species (in the sense of specific ).
• Related to the idea of a deviant or "abnormal" sexual behavior (but the question always remains: "normal from whose point of view?").
• Related to the idea of "to impose a pain or violence on someone" (in or out of the sexual realm), possibly stemming from sadism, which is one of the most famous paraphilias.

In common, there is the idea of perversion as defining element of a personality In other words, perversion marks the subject as a constitutive characteristic that affects not only aspects of sexuality, but also the subject's way of being and living.

It is important to point out that, despite all this reflection, at no time in this article (nor in the works of Freud and Lacan) are certain crimes related to sexuality and/or perversion, such as rape, torture, and pedophilia, legitimized. It is also important to know Freud's Letter to the mother of a young homosexual.

Concept of Perversion in Freud and Lacan

The excerpt from Freud below suggests the difficulty in separating perversion and "normality Even the "normal sexual target" (i.e. penis-vagina) can involve "additions", such as symbolic aspects, fantasies and desires typical of a paraphilia or perversion. For example, if a man-woman couple practices oral sex or exhibitionism, this would already be a perversion. Let's see what Freud says:

" No sane person lacks some addition to the normal sexual target that can be called perverse It is precisely in the field of sexual life that one encounters peculiar and really insoluble difficulties, at the moment, when one wants to draw a clear boundary between what is mere variation within the physiological range and what constitutes pathological symptoms" (Freud).

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In Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality, Freud states that "the predisposition to perversions was the original and universal predisposition of human sexuality " (Freud).

Explaining:

• Perversion would be "original and universal" because the early stages of psychosexual development of all children would involve the oral (sucking) and anal (withholding) phases, which are not genital. The genital phase would be late in human development. This clearly suggests the origin of human sexuality as being perversely based.
• What Freud called organic settling in the evolution of the human species reduced the dimension of smell and favored the visual; with this, the sexual (and perceived as "perverse") dimensions of feces, urine and blood were attenuated, although still potentially present.

It is for these reasons that Jacques Lacan reinforces: " All human sexuality is perverse He never conceived sexuality without being perverse" (Lacan).

Lacan's concept of père-version

This topic would depend on a study of Lacan's Seminar XXIII, but it is possible to make an approximation.

Lacan had a linguistic approach and developed many concepts of his own. So the idea was what he calls "playing with equivocation," that is, throwing a word/expression (in this case, " père-version ") and then see what it can reveal and relate to known expressions.

In the example, perversion looks like the term père-version which, translated from French, means "towards father" ( vers : "in the direction"; on : "we" or "us"; père It is Lacan's way of dialoguing with Freud's Oedipus Complex. We can think that père-version is related to "perversion" because the son-father relationship is allegorically understood as a sado-masochistic relationship:

• the father represents the sadistic part (who imposes his will and command),
• the son represents the masochistic part (which is satisfied by receiving the sadistic command from the father).

There would then be an imposition of the father on the son, and the son would be educated to deprive himself of his desires because of the father's desire, which prevails. Sometimes maturation is understood as the refusal of the child to the father, or the relativization to the Father-Name .

Thus,

• in the beginning the son goes "in the same direction as the father", in the sense of following the father and satisfying the father;
• Then the son goes "in the opposite direction of the father," in the sense that he understands the controlling role of the father and questions him.

All this needs to be understood with great caution:

• Lacan's example is an allegory, not literal So don't take it as a real sado-masochistic sexual relationship.
• Refusal to the father is not absolute and does not necessarily mean what we understand as "disrespect or violence" from the son.

This refusal of the son to the father can be explained even when the son is creating his own preferences and discourse, for example: when living with schoolmates, living in other social environments, discovering other references such as idols or heroes.

Within the idea of père-version is the idea of parent-version , that is, the son's version of the father, not necessarily the "real father", but the son's version of the father role So Lacan says that this is the father-sinthoma (with "th" in Lacan's spelling): even if the father is already "dead" (literally or figuratively), the son can continue to carry this synthoma (this ghost), which can be a barrier to his own enjoyment.

The mouth as a way of knowing the world

Using the mouth as a means to get to know the world, it is natural for the child to bring to it everything it doesn't know. To it, this is natural. If an adult scolds it for this reason, it gets into conflict and begins to have to learn to interpret in its own way the whys and wherefores of people's scoldings.

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For example, a child who brings her own feces to her mouth. In her view it is her creation, she created it, and that is natural If someone scares you about it, thinking it is disgusting and dirty, it will generate a psychic conflict and feeling repression.

Thus, we can see that people's attitudes can influence the formation of a person. Therefore, everyone is susceptible to be built, to create their personality according to the people around them.

This makes us think about what we call vocation, personality, character, etc. They are just a result of the environment that the child has developed.

The way a behavior affects individuals will make it be considered as perversion or not

Which reminds us of Newton's third law Sexuality is the origin of all human behavior and the basis of Freud's theories. He explains how a child sees and interprets the world in each developmental phase of its life.

People are still unaware of the responsibility that each person has when raising or taking care of a child, and therefore end up condemning, judging, criticizing, or looking down on adults who behave in a way that is not normal, because they don't know that they are just victims of a repressed childhood feeling.

A perversion is a behavior known socially or clinically as being outside the normal range. In the realm of pathology, a behavior is only considered perverse if it causes suffering or disrupts or invades some area of a person's life. If this does not happen, is not considered perversion .

Some behaviors considered as perversions

It is also considered abnormal when you have a limitation in your ability to relate in a healthy way. As if there is only one exclusive way to do this.

In addition, there are some forms that are predefined as perverse, and which are only considered pathological those that cause suffering in the social, professional, or interpersonal relationships of the people involved in the behavior.

Some of these behaviors are:

• exhibitionism;
• fetishism;
• necrophilia;
• zoophilia;
• voyeurism;
• sadism;
• masochism, among others.

Sexuality is not only about the sexual act itself

However, when a person is born, he or she does not come with an instruction manual. Thus, individuals are created with problems caused by social, cultural, and historical impositions.

O genre , a sexual orientation , gender identity disorders are examples of these impositions that cause internal and external conflicts in people, because they already have predetermined models and forms of right and wrong, which often do not match the person's internal reality.

Freud's vision on sexuality is broad, not only linked to the sexual act. In his theory, it is present in human life since birth through the sexual drive, which is universal, innate to the human being, and seeks pleasure.

Pleasure in childhood and adulthood

The child, when feeding, sucking pacifier, biting teeth, among other things, enjoys a sexual satisfaction. And, this satisfaction is polymorphous with a multiplicity of sources. In the beginning, it is auto-erotic with itself, through the so-called erogenous zones that start without genital zones, but evolve towards them.

As children's development evolves, they go through a latency period The energy is directed to education and social interaction, which will help keep the sexual drive on track.

After this period, the search for pleasure returns, now with the choice of a new sexual target, the other and no longer in oneself. It is an organization of the sexual components of the drive, natural in every human being, that makes Freud state that humans are born "perverse".

Perversion does not end with cruelty, sociopathy or psychopathy

We have already warned that the concept of perversion is polysemic. Precisely because it is a polysemic term, it is important that you understand what each author has defined as perversion, in order to have a starting point in the debate.

So, there are authors who understand perversion as:

• synonymous with cruelty, sociopathy or even psychopathy;
• emptied of the dimension of human sexuality;
• only one pathology.

In our view, these conceptions may even be didactic, but they are insufficient and potentially wrong.

We prefer to follow the path of approaching perversion in the Freudian and Lacanian sense It is precisely to avoid understanding perversion only as cruelty.

After all, in Freud and in Lacan:

• There is a sexual basis in perversion In fact, in psychoanalysis, there is a sexual basis to everything.
• There is no watertight boundary between the normal and the pathological ; just as narcissism can be pathological and at the same time its elements are important for the constitution of the "normal" ego, so it is with perversion, which can be characterized as (1) pathology, as (2) a personality structure, and (3) even as a human universal (that is, something from which no human being escapes).
• Perversion is not just breaking rules and not feeling guilty This concept of perversion would already be a more current context and more in line with a certain linguistic meaning that we have today.

Final considerations on perversion

It is a very common mistake to think that perversion is just a disease, or that it is a lack of empathy, or that it is sociopathic behavior. Another mistake is to think that it does not have a strong basis related to sexuality, even when it extrapolates to other areas of human activity. Still another mistake is to think that "my sexual behavior is standard, others are deviant or wrong": in this egocentrism is thegerm of all intolerance.

The purpose of the text is to try to think beyond simplistic definitions.

It is important for you to understand:

• O the concept of perversion in psychoanalysis is not identical to the common sense definition.
• Only the penis-vagina sex So, if it is something so broad, is this concept really useful, even for psychoanalytic clinics?
• Even those who practice penis-vagina sex can have habits considered perverse such as: oral sex, sado-masochism, exhibitionism, voyeurism, etc.
• A perversion is part of human nature It is in the psychosexual development of all people: the oral and anal phases occur earlier than the genital phase.
• Be careful not to use "perversion" or "perverse" for the purpose of judging or offending someone.
• It is interesting to know the concepts of some of the main paraphilias paraphilias are (specific) manifestations of (generic) perversion.

The Freudian conception does not exhaust perversion in its pathological dimension. After all, Freud understands perversion as constitutive of the subject, as we explained.

It is possible to understand, through the study of psychoanalysis that every human being is perverse by nature There is the concept of organic recalcitrance, and there are fass of sexual development that are not only genital.

Freud breaks paradigms with his theories, and to this day is misinterpreted by those who do not study his works thoroughly.

In our view, the most interesting thing in clinical practice is to involve the subject (analyzing) in his discourse How does he perceive himself in relation to his sexuality?

If there is no non-consented aggression against another person, what will count is not a "right" or "wrong" from the point of view of wish of others Trying to impose on someone a single way of living out sexuality would be, in a certain sense, a perverse act. After all, we would be imposing the our desire for what the other might desire .

The Psychoanalysis Training Course studies the relationship between perversion It deals, in depth, with the theme of psychic disorders and the relationship between mind and body. In addition, it studies the formation of personality from childhood on, desires, impulses, and the relationship between conscious and unconscious. So, don't miss this chance to study more about this subject!