ABSTRACT

This chapter is concerned with the problem of inscription in terms of sexual differentiation, and the way in which it is conditioned by castration. Perversion is inextricably linked to this problem and therefore has a different meaning for men and women. Perversion also affects the generational process and therefore the fundamental differences on which the symbolic order and mental life are based. The study of the clinical structures is very useful for developing the understanding of perversion. The structures differ with regard to the subject's engagement with the fantasy, which can of course only be accessed via interpretation, much like other clinical materials. As far as the fantasy is concerned, the neurotic stumbles over his attempts at interpretation and suffers from their idleness. The neurotic prefers to eradicate, i.e., repress, what he cannot undo, with the result that the traces of the past continue to exist as erased traces, and are actually maintained precisely because they have been erased.