A "Slave of Quantity"

TY - JOUR

T1 - A "Slave of Quantity"

AU - Gammelgård, Judy

PY - 2015/4/3

Y1 - 2015/4/3

N2 - This is a reading of Steve McQueens (2011) film Shame from a psychoanalytic point of view. At the manifest level Shame is about a man addicted to sex, and the title of the film might seem to refer to the humiliation and self-abasement that is the consequence of living as a slave of sexual excitation. This article suggests, however, that the feeling of shame is not a consequence of sexual addiction but its condition. Referring to the work of Michel de MUzan (2013) and of Jean Laplanche (1999), it argues that sexual addiction is linked to the ultimate otherness, which is rooted in the unconscious of the adult and transmitted to the child as untranslatable messages, and the consequence of which is a deficiency in the egos ability to articulate what is experienced as overwhelming excitation.

AB - This is a reading of Steve McQueens (2011) film Shame from a psychoanalytic point of view. At the manifest level Shame is about a man addicted to sex, and the title of the film might seem to refer to the humiliation and self-abasement that is the consequence of living as a slave of sexual excitation. This article suggests, however, that the feeling of shame is not a consequence of sexual addiction but its condition. Referring to the work of Michel de MUzan (2013) and of Jean Laplanche (1999), it argues that sexual addiction is linked to the ultimate otherness, which is rooted in the unconscious of the adult and transmitted to the child as untranslatable messages, and the consequence of which is a deficiency in the egos ability to articulate what is experienced as overwhelming excitation.

U2 - 10.1080/15240657.2015.1038166

DO - 10.1080/15240657.2015.1038166

M3 - Journal article

SN - 1524-0657

VL - 16

SP - 114

EP - 117

JO - Studies in Gender and Sexuality

JF - Studies in Gender and Sexuality

IS - 2

ER -