ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author presents how as analysts we can respond sensitively to questions of sexuality and sexual identity that are raised by psychoanalystic patients. She focuses on Michel Foucault’s analysis to highlight the socio-historical specificity of lesbian and gay identities. Many of the significant developments in feminist, gender, and lesbian and gay studies have been influenced by Foucault’s theorizing, emphasizing the socio-cultural and historical specificity of sexual identity and sexual practices. She shows how the identities have been constituted out of complex webs of ecclesiastical, moral, legal, political and economic discourses and practices that are constantly shifting. She discusses aspects of Audre Lorde’s novel Zami, and shows how this offers some particularly valuable insights into the question of identity in relation to both race and sexuality and the diversity of lesbian experiences. She also focuses on the relevance of these considerations to psychoanalytic theorizing and practice.