1st Edition

Foucault Versus Freud Oedipal Theory and the Deployment of Sexuality

By Jerome C. Wakefield Copyright 2025
362 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

362 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

362 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

In  Foucault Versus Freud , Jerome C. Wakefield offers a novel analysis of one of the great intellectual clashes of our times, the attack on Sigmund Freud's influential sexual theories by the eminent French philosopher and historian of ideas Michel Foucault. Starting from Foucault's question, "What makes the psychoanalytic theory of incest acceptable to the bourgeois family?", and drawing... Read more

1. Introduction: Foucault Versus Freud  2. The Appeal of the Oedipus Complex  3. The Masturbation Crusade  4. Surveillance, Confession, Medicalization: Foucault on the Masturbation Crusade  5.The Preservation of Victorianism: Freud's Early Theories as Extension of the Masturbation Crusade  6. Foucault on the Ease of Transition from the Masturbation Crusade to the Oedipal Theory  7. The Dangers of Fantasy: Masturbation and Incestuous Desire in the Little Hans Case  8. Foucault's Critique of Freud's Oedipal Theory: Conclusions and Implications

Biography

Jerome C. Wakefield is university professor, professor of Social Work, affiliate professor of Philosophy, associate faculty in the Center for Bioethics in the School of Global Public Health, and honorary faculty in the Psychoanalytic Association of New York Affiliated with NYU Grossman School of Medicine, at New York University.

'Mr J. Wakefield's philosophical training seemed to me very solid, it enables him to reflect upon the methodological framework of his research, and to control its conceptualization. Moreover, Mr J. Wakefield has a vast and thorough knowledge of the medical and philosophical thinking on sexuality. He enjoys a good command of the classic works on this topic, and he is really knowledgeable about contemporary research. His analytic capacities and his excellent ability to articulate his ideas make him a truly talented researcher.'

Michel Foucault, from a translated letter of reference written for the author on January 15th 1984.