The sexed being is only authorized by him/herself and by some others

Abstract

Considering the challenges presented to psychoanalysis by the gender theories, the paper discusses the sexuation theory's reformulation through the proposition, uttered by Lacan, "The sexed being is only authorized by him/herself and by some others" (Lacan, 1974, p. 187). From that enunciation, the text explores the relation between the poles 'some others' and 'him/herself' through the return to early lacanian developments, before the structuralism's hegemony on his work. First, the relevance of a plural alterity on the subject's structuration is discussed by the analysis of the O tempo lógico, text in which the French psychoanalyst conceives the rise of the subject as inseparable of a logic of undetermined collectivity. We then demonstrate how the anticipated act that goes from an error to a certitude is central also at the O estádio do espelho, where the idea of a constitution of a oneself is presented as a singular unification. We propose, considering a discussion on the child's jubilant state, Lacan's review on the relation between imaginary and real at A terceira and Fernando Pessoa's poetry, a new reading of the notion of 'jouissance' of the Other, based on a broader comprehension of the sexuation theory. We conclude that such a rereading of Lacan's sexuation allow considering it as a process, that not only articulates different stages of his teaching but put the debate with the gender questions in other terms.