Totem and taboo

a cultural counterpoint to errant sexual behaviors

Abstract

As a starting point, the author uses Freud’s discovery that human sexuality is a priori indeterminate in its modalities and in its objects, allowing, from the very beginning, for incestuous relationships in the family circle or with the nearest relative. Hence, there inevitably comes the prohibition against incest as an essential way to organize sexual behavior, hinged upon the Oedipus complex that revolves around the issue of castration. The psychic structure arising therefrom leads to the construction of sexed identifications, of sexual orientation, and of the ideals of the self. The character in a recent movie, who wants to be a woman, although his sexual and affective desires are directed toward women, is the subject of debate, based on Lacan’s late conception of the sinthome as the way out of the Oedipus complex.