If love is like this, so it is not worth it: Freud’s analysis about the injunctions of “civilized morality” on sexuality

Abstract

In this paper, we present a theoretical review of Sigmund Freud’s reflections about the impacts of civilized morality on the development of sexuality, a subject that frequently reappears in the course of his psychoanalytic investigations. We propose that the theme be observed together with the question of how to preserve some possible experience of love in modern society, considering the vilification of the conditions imposed by sexual morality. For this purpose, we highlight the double reference that makes up the notion of perversion and its use as a device for persistent social criticism, the raw material for an ethical and dedicated interpellation.