Abstract

This essay intends of compare and contrast the way in which sexuality is understood by Sigmund Freud and Michel
Foucault. It will start by looking at these two authors' conception of the self and, from this foundational
conceptualisation, it will moe on to explore the differences between these two authors' iews on sexuality. !hile, for
Freud, sexual impulses and strie for pleasure go to the ery heart of human beings, Foucault claims that sex cannot be
understood outside the domain of sexuality, and sexuality is nothing but one of the many products of power. "eparting
from the iew that sexuality should not be understood as an autonomous agent, but instead as an effect of power,
Foucault deelops a criti#ue to both Freud's theory of the $edipus complex and to his commonly accepted iews on
sexual repression.
Compare the analyses of sexuality found in the theories of the self offered by Sigmund Freud
and Michel Foucault
This paper offers a comparison between Sigmund Freud's and Michel Foucault's analyses of
sexuality. It will essentially defend three principal assumptions% &a' !hile Freud is interested in
understanding the role that the unconscious mind plays in constituting the indiidual, Foucault turns
to the social domain to create an idea of the self as a power(effect) &b' through the deelopment of
the $edipus complex, Freud claims that sexuality and the strie for pleasure go to the ery heart of
human beings. Foucault, on the other hand, refutes Freud's analysis of sexuality and claims that sex
cannot be understood outside the domain of sexuality, and sexuality is nothing but one of the facets
of power) &c' !hile Freud sees instinctual sex dries as essentially repressed by ciili*ation's
norms, laws and taboos, Foucault argues that the multiplication of discourses on sex and the
deelopment of a series of mechanisms that monitors, discusses and regulates sexuality
demonstrate that, rather than repressed, sex has been widely spoken about and inestigated since the
+,
th
-entury.
This essay will be structured in the following manner% firstly, I will expose the reader to Freud's &I'
and Foucault's &II' idea of the self while comparing and contrasting these iews. Secondly, Freud's
$edipus complex and his theory of sexuality &III' will be exposed, followed by Foucault's analysis
and criticism &I.' of Freud's psychoanalysis. !hile exploring this criti#ue, I will highlight
Foucault's own analysis of sexuality. Thirdly, Freud's Civilization and its Discontents will be looked
at more closely &.', and this analysis will be followed by Foucault's response to Freud's 'repressie
hypothesis' &.I' deeloped in his History of Sexuality.
I- Sigmund Freud- Ego, superego and the id
/en though Freud does not describe the 'sub0ect' or the 'self' as such, his model of the mind de(
centres sub0ectiity by diiding the mind into three parts% ego, id and super(ego &1tkins, 2334,
p.+54'. The id is defined as the oldest part of the mind , and from which other structures are deried
&Storr, 233+, p.63'. It contains eerything that is inherited, that is present at birth, the instincts
'which originate from some somatic organi*ation and which find first psychical expression
unknown to us' &Freud, +567, p.+74'. For Freud, the id is 'the realm of the illogical', primitie and
emotional) it is 'filled with energy reaching it from the instincts', but it 'has no organi*ation,
produces no collectie will, only striing to bring about the satisfaction of instinctie needs' &Freud
#uoted in Storr, 233+, p.6+'. The ego, on the other hand, refers to that part of the mind that
represents consciousness &Storr, 233+, p.6+'. The ego bares the most complexity because it engages
with the whole of mental life, and incorporates aspects of the preconscious, conscious, and
unconscious systems &1tkins, 2334, p.+56'. The ego originally arises from our perceptual system,
and it can be understood as a 'kind of repository of all our sensations', transforming energy into
specific action and behaiour in the material world &1tkins,2334, p.+56'. For Freud, the ego has a
mediating task between the urges of the id and the inhibiting criticisms of the superego) he utilises
the following analogy as to represent the ways in which the ego relates to the id &Freud, 233+, p.24'%
Thus in its &ego' relation to the id it is like a man on horseback, who has to hold in check the superior strength of the
horse, with this difference, that the rider tries to do so with his own strength while the ego uses borrowed forces. The
analogy may be carried a little further. $ften a rider, if he is not to be parted from his horse, is obliged to guide it where
it wants to go) so in the same way the ego is in the habit of transforming the id8s will into action as if it were its own.
The superego can be understood as the oice of conscience, the repressor of the id's wishes and the
inhibitor of the ego's desires. The superego is deeloped during infancy, originally deeloped
through parental control but, as each indiidual gradually deelops cultural and ethical ideas, the
alues and standards of society becomes incorporated as part of the sub0ects own psyche &9ear,
2336, p.24,) Storr, 233+, p.6:'. The superego is, therefore, a socially ac#uired mechanism that
controls thought and behaiour, a kind of 'morali*er' of the mind' &1tkins, 2334, p.+56'. 1fter this
brief oeriew of Freud's understanding of a de(centred sub0ect, I will further explore the origins of
the mind's tripartite structural diisions in Section III of this essay.
II- Foucault- Poer and the self
Foucault did not focus his work on an autonomous sub0ect 'whose reason and agency constitutes
knowledge and endows the world with meaning') instead, he concerned himself with the
inestigation of processes and forces that he deemed essential in the constitution of the self
&!illiams, 2332, p.2;'. !hile Freud is interested in understanding the role that the unconscious
mind plays in constituting the indiidual, Foucault turns to the social domain to create an idea of the
self as a power(effect. Foucault beliees knowledge to be essentially linked to power struggles, and
power to be 'an articulating #uasi(organic force manifest in the practical capacity of the body to act'
&1tkins, 2334, p.23,'. !ithin the wide array of topics that Foucault inestigated throughout his
academic life, he was, aboe all, concerned with the subtle and complex ways through which
modern social institutions shape, engender and modify the minds of human sub0ects &/lliot, 233:,
p.;2'. Foucault's ob0ectie is, therefore, 'to detect the conditions which enable the rise of the sub0ect
in the interrelated spheres of knowledge and politics' &!illiams, 2332 p.2;'.
1ccording to Foucault, citi*ens of modern societies are more and more sub0ected to complex,
imperceptible forms of disciplinary power, as techni#ues of control and domination hae gradually
become hidden, monotonous and inisible &/lliot, 233:, p.;2'. -ontrary to Freud's analysis, who
focuses on the inner world of the self and looks at emotions, desires and impulses to understand the
sub0ect, Foucault focuses instead on the role that social structures play in determining the ways in
which we deelop knowledge about ourseles. It is this conception of modern power as mobile,
fluid and omnipresent, that sets out the tone for Foucault's History of Sexuality, which will be more
throughly analysed later on in this essay.
III- Freud!s "edipus complex
The basis for Freud's model of the psyche lied in what he called the $edipus -omplex. 1ccording
to this concept, all humans go through a childhood crisis that has a profound effect in structuring the
human psyche. In its simplified form, the $edipus -omplex states that, by the age of four or fie,
the child becomes attracted erotically to the parent of the opposite sex while identifying him<herself
with the same sex parent &9ear, 2334, p.+;2'. In the case of the little boy, he wants to hae his
mother and be his father. The boy's sexual desire for the mother, howeer, encourages the
deelopment of hostile impulses towards the father, whom he sees as a sexual rial. This hostility,
howeer, arouses fear that the father would retaliate, 'and the form that this retaliation is likely to
take is that of castration' &Storr, 233+, p.::''. The 'castration complex'( which is partly
conse#uential from the boy's assumption that, because girls do not hae a penis, they must hae
suffered castration ( represents a great threat to the boy, who unconsciously abandons his hopes of
sexual union with his mother, and shifts his attention towards securing sexual satisfaction from
other females &Storr, 233+, p.:7'. The female ersion of the $edipus complex is less clearly
formulated. =onetheless, Freud reached the conclusion that, once the girl discoers she lacks a
penis, and is therefore an inferior being, she becomes disappointed with her mother, whom she
blames for her condition. 1t the same time, the girl fantasises that the father will impregnate her,
and the resulting child would be a form of substitute for the missing organ) in the conclusion of this
stage of emotional deelopment, the girl understands men as 'potential impregnators who will
enable her to hae a baby and thus oercome her continuing sense of being an inferior kind of
human being' &Storr, 233+, p.:7'.
For Freud, therefore, for a social identity to emerge, infants hae to moe beyond the sexual and
aggressie dries aroused by their parents towards a 'more culturally shaped, symbolic set of
relations with parents, with other people, and with the wider world' &/lliot, 233:, p.44'. It is through
the resolution of the $edipus complex that the ego and superego are formed, and humans become
then capable of assessing, repressing and internalising their dries in accordance to the social norms
and alues. Freud's formulation challenged 'popular ideas' on the nature and characteristics of the
sexual drie, not only claiming it to be present from childhood in all indiiduals, but also asserting
that sexual impulses and strie for pleasure go to the ery heart of human beings &9ear, 2334, p.44'.
In the Section ., I will moe on to look at one of Freud's most important works, Civilization and its
Discontents, and analyse what he sees as fundamental tensions between ciili*ation's laws and
norms and the indiidual's innate dries.
I#- Foucault!s criti$ue of the "edipus complex
In an important passage from History of Sexuality, Foucault deelops on the relationship between
sex, sexuality and power while offering a criti#ue to the basis of psychoanalysis &Foucault, +55;,
p.+44'%
!e must not make the mistake of thinking that sex is an autonomous agency which secondarily produces manifold
effects of sexuality oer the entire length of contact with power. $n the contrary, sex is the most speculatie, most ideal,
and most internal element in a deployment of sexuality organi*ed by power in its grips on bodies and their materiality,
their forces, energies, sensations and pleasures.

For Foucault, sex cannot be understood outside the domain of sexuality, and sexuality is nothing but
one of the many products of power. These assumption constitute the basis of Foucault's criti#ue to
Freud's research. >ecause psychoanalysis deploys sex not on the basis of techni#ues of power, but
rather as an independent agent, it ultimately contributes to the incarnation of power in the form of
sexuality &"orfman, 23+3, p.+4;'. Foucault supports "eleu*e and ?uattari's criti#ue of the $edipus
complex, claiming that it does not represent some truth of nature but, instead, an 'instrument of
limitation and constraint that psychoanalysts, starting with Freud, use to contain desire and insert it
within a family structure' &>asaure, 2335,p.:7+'. In other words, Freud's psychoanalysis, despite
claiming itself to break with traditional psychiatric practices, is ultimately 'tied to assumptions
about the meaning and alue of the bourgeois family' &?utting, 2334, p.57'. Freud's $edipus
complex not only reinforces a certain discourse on sexuality, but also, under the flag of liberation,
helps to confine this discourse to !estern rules of family and kinship institutions. Foucault makes
his ob0ection to psychoanalytical method clear in this colourful and eocatie passage &Foucault,
+55;, p.++:'%
@arents, do not be afraid to bring your own children to analysis% it will teach them that in any case it is you whom they
loe. -hildren, you really shouldn't complain that you are not orphans, that you always rediscoer in your innermost
seles your $b0ect(mother or the soereign sign of your father% it is through them that you gain access to desire.
#- Freud!s Civilization and its Discontents and the repressed self
In Civilization and its discontents, Freud argues that the most fundamental tension between
ciili*ation and the indiidual stem from the discrepancy between what the latter's instinct dries
him<her to do and what society imposes as acceptable through laws, norms and taboos. For Freud,
while the indiidual stries for instinctual liberation, he<she is forced to conform to ciili*ation's
demands for repression and conformity. Aather than helping to liberate the self, the deelopment of
culture and the growth in scientific knowledge hae, instead, had an inerse relation to our
alienation, resulting on a necessary escalation of man's repression. >oth men's propensity to aggress
one another, as well as their incessant sexual desire becomes sacrificed as society aims at binding
indiiduals towards a common direction &"eigh,+55+, p.253'. For Freud, howeer, these sexual and
aggressie dries are neer mutually isolated, as the preention of erotic satisfaction triggers
aggressie responses by the indiidual &Freud, 2337, p.4:'. This constant search for instinctual
satisfaction are deeply conflictual with the well(being of the general population. For ciili*ed
society to control these instinctual dries, it must impose excessie and unreasonable demands oer
its population &Freud, 2337, pp.6+(62'.
The repression of these aggressie instincts by society is turned inward and directed back against
the ego. These aggressie dries deelop in the superego as conscience, which is responsible for
punishing the ego through the feelings of remorse and guilt &"eigh, +55+, p.25,'. For Freud,
ciili*ation is only able to oercome this aggressiity of the indiidual, 'by weakening him,
disarming him and setting up an internal authority to watch oer him, like a garrison in a con#uered
town' &Freud, 2337, p.,,'. Indiidual's guilt and remorse, Freud claims, are therefore conse#uential
to the the non(satisfaction of our powerful instincts. For Freud, therefore, ciili*ation is built on
renunciation, suppression and repression of the core instincts. In relation to the sexual domain,
Freud explains how moral restrictions imposed by ciili*ation oer indiiduals represent a loss of
happiness to them &Freud, 2337, p.42'%
The sexually mature indiidual finds that his choice of ob0ect is restricted to the opposite sex, and that most of extra(
genital gratifications are forbidden as perersions. The demand for a uniform sexual life for all, which is proclaimed in
these prohibitions, disregards all the disparities, innate and ac#uired, in the sexual constitution of human beings, thereby
depriing fairly large numbers of sexual en0oyment and becoming a source of grae in0ustice.
For Freud, sexuality is therefore repressed because its actiity is constrained to what society
perceies to be morally admissible) during Freud's epoch, therefore, ciili*ation made it clear
(despite its known impracticability ( that the only acceptable forms of sexual relations were to take
place within monogamous and indissoluble relationships between a man and a woman &Freud,
2337,p.4:'.
#I- Foucault!s response to the !repressi%e hypothesis!
Foucault offers a strong criticism to Freudianism in History of Sexuality, as he attempts to debunk
what he calls psychoanalysis's 'repressie hypothesis'. 1ccording to this hypothesis, sexuality has, at
least in !estern society, been 'censured, smothered and forbidden' &/lliot, 233:, p.;4'. For
Foucault, sex, rather than being drien underground, has been widely spoken and discussed. In fact,
Foucault claims that no other society has had the same concern with sex as the !estern society. Be
notes a multiplicity of the discourses on sex as well as the deelopment of a whole series of
mechanisms monitoring, discussing, classifying, ordering, recording and regulating the ways in
which we think and understand sexuality &/lliot, 233:,p.;4'. -ontrary to Freudian assumptions,
therefore, the discourse of sex has been multiplied rather than rarefied and, een though Foucault
recognises that it has been carried out with taboos and prohibitions, it has also, in a more
fundamental way, 'ensured the solidification and implantation of an entire sexual mosaic' &Foucault,
+55;, p.4:' . This sexual mosaic represents the arious discourses that claim to hold uniersal
claims on the issue, that proides the public with authoritatie accounts on matters of desire and
sexual perersion, that #ualifies and categorises sex as normal, deiant, abnormal, etc &Foucault
+55;, p.46'%
Sex was not only a matter of sensation and pleasure, of law and taboo, but also of truth and falsehood, that the truth of
sex became something fundamental, useful, or dangerous, precious or formidable% in short that sex was constituted as a
problem of truth
1ccording to Foucault, this 'eritable discursie explosion' of talk about sex initiated in the +,
th

-entury, as the practice of confession was institutionalised. -onfession then, Foucault argues,
became 'one of the most highly alued techni#ues for producing truth' in !estern societies
&Foucault, +55;, p.45'. For the penitent, it was not a #uestion to confess what he<she had done) it
was also necessary to reconstruct, 'in and around the act, the thoughts that recapitulated it, the
obsessions that accompanied it, the images, desires, modulations and the #uality of the pleasure that
animated it' &Foucault, +55;, p.6:'. 1ll these factors were important as not only to discoer the
penitent's degree of guilt, but also for his<her deelopment of a more precise self(knowledge about
the nature of his sexual desires.
These practices were adopted and further deeloped beyond the religious sphere. Today,
confessions are made to one's doctors, psychiatrists and, more important still, to oneself &?utting,
2334, p.5:'. These confessions are crucial for 'experts' in sexual nature to deelop discourses on the
science of sex, and present their findings as the latest discoeries on the 'truth' of human nature. It
was, therefore, through these two modes of production of truth C procedures of confession, and
scientific discursiity C that the multiplicity of discourses on sexuality in the nineteenth century
were deeloped and reinforced &Foucault, +55;, p.64'. The grand psychoanalytical theory, the
medical report, the scientific treatise% these are the means by which 'science establishes a position
from which it discloses, and legislates upon, sex and its regimes of truth' &/lliot, 233:, p.;,'. For
Foucault, Freud's psychoanalysis played a crucial role in intensifying the discourse of sexuality
while failing to realise its own position in this network of power.

Conclusion
Freud's idea of the self as drien by sexual impulses strongly contrasts with Foucault's idea of the
self as an effect of power. >y looking at how social structures determine the ways in which we
deelop knowledge about ourseles, Foucault was able to criticise Freud's theory of the $edipus
complex, claiming that it confines the discourse around sexuality to !estern rules of family and
kinship institutions. Moreoer, it is possible to identify ma0or differences between the iews held by
Freud and Foucault on the issue of sexual repression. !hile Freud defends that sex was censured
and forbidden during .ictorian times, Foucault disagrees with this claim and attempt to debunk this
hypothesis. For Foucault, since the +,
th
-entury, there has been a widening discussion of sex and
sexuality) through the research and inestigation conducted by doctors, psychoanalysts and
'expertises'( Freud included ( a science of sex was then deeloped. For Foucault, this scientia
sexualis is still an essential aspect of our lies, as it shapes the ways in which we understand and
relate to our own desire.
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