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Freud's Oedipus and Kristeva's Narcissus: Three Heterogeneities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2020

Sara Beardsworth
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Abstract

The paper shows that three heterogeneities in Freud and Kristeva (unconscious/conscious, semiotic/symbolic, and imaginary/symbolic) expose the historical emergence, significance, and demise of psychic structures that present obstacles to our progressive political thinking. The oedipal and narcissistic structures of subjectivity represent the persistence of two past, bad forms of authority: paternal law and maternal authority. Contemporary psychoanalysis reveals a humankind going through the loss of this past in a process that opens up a different future of sexual difference in Western cultures.

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Type
Research Article
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Hypatia , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , Winter 2005 , pp. 54 - 77
Copyright
Copyright © 2005 by Hypatia, Inc.

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