Working with Sexuality: Bodies, Desires and Imagination

Good In Bed? Power and Ethics in psychoanalyzis and Life

In reflecting on the present moment, which involves revelations of high-profile rapists, sexual assailants, and those using their power to sexually coerce and exploit (including iconic figures Harvey Weinstein and Donald Trump), this article considers the relationship between the destructive and oppressive forces that underlie these abuses, and aspects of “ordinary” sexuality that people struggle to integrate in their relational lives. The author explores the ways that such ordinary sexuality, particularly under ubiquitous conditions of patriarchy, is likely to include aspects of objectification, coercion, and exploitation. Further considered is the psychical and relational fallout of the counteractions currently being mounted against such violations and abuses. Two brief case vignettes, one of a heterosexual man, the other of a heterosexual woman, are used as exemplars of the tolls that coercive abuses and their remedies may be taking on sexual relatedness.