ABSTRACT
Sigmund Freud's account of psychical impotence also explains why, for men at least, so-called erotica can never do the job of pornography in terms of eliciting sexual excitement, where pornography, as opposed to erotica, is taken to involve an element of debasement. It is important to note that Freud's account in 'Universal Tendency' focuses expressly upon male, heterosexual sexuality. The problem of sexual difference is only touched upon. Freud's focus on the male and his at times astonishing account of 'femininity' are well-known difficulties for Freudian psychoanalysis generally. Freud's account of love is diametrically opposed to the common view that in true love one must be concerned with the other, for their flourishing, wholly for the other's sake alone. What Freud says about the nature of the object-choice in love being either narcissistic or anaclitic and about psycho-sexual development generally, all imply that the reasons one thinks one has for loving someone are not the real reasons or even close.
