Our dark side : a history of perversion / Élisabeth Roudinesco ; translated by David Macey.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Roudinesco, Elisabeth, 1944-

Standardized Title:

Part obscure de nous-mêmes. English

Language:

English

French

Subjects (All):

Paraphilic Disorders--history.

Crime--history.

History, Early Modern 1451-1600.

History, Medieval.

History, Modern 1601-.

Sexual Behavior--history.

Social Behavior Disorders--history.

Deviant behavior--Philosophy.

Deviant behavior.

Deviant behavior--History.

Paraphilias--History.

Paraphilias.

Psychoanalysis and literature.

Paraphilias in literature.

Psychosexual disorders--History.

Psychosexual disorders.

Sexual disorders--History.

Sexual disorders.

Sex (Psychology).

Women--Sexual behavior--History.

Women.

Men--Sexual behavior--History.

Men.

Men--Sexual behavior.

History.

Women--Sexual behavior.

Philosophy.

Medical Subjects:

Paraphilic Disorders--history.

Crime--history.

History, Early Modern 1451-1600.

History, Medieval.

History, Modern 1601-.

Sexual Behavior--history.

Social Behavior Disorders--history.

Physical Description:

188 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, UK ; Malden, MA : Polity, 2009.

Summary:

Where does perversion begin? Who is perverse? Ever since the word first appeared in the Middle Ages, anyone who delights in evil and in the destruction of the self or others has been described as 'perverse'. But, while the experience of perversion is universal, every era has understood it and dealt with it in its own way.

The history of perversion in the West is recounted here through a study of the great emblematic figures of the perverse - Gilles de Rais, the mystical saints and the flagellants in the Middle Ages, the Marquis de Sade in the eighteenth century, the masturbating child, the male homosexual and the hysterical woman in the nineteenth century, Nazism in the twentieth century, and the complementary figures of the paedophile and the terrorist in the twenty-first.

The perverse are rarely talked about and, when they are, it is usually only to be condemned. They are commonly viewed as monstrous and cruel, as something alien to the very nature of being human. And yet, perversion can also attest to creativity and self-transcendence, to the refusal of individuals to submit to the rules and prohibitions that govern human life. Perversion fascinates us precisely because it can be both abject and sublime. Whether they are sublime because they turn to art or mysticism, or abject because they surrender to their murderous impulses, the perverse are part of us because they exhibit something that we always conceal: our own negativity and our dark side.

Contents:

The sublime and the abject

Sade pro and contra Sade

Dark enlightenment or barbaric science

The Auschwitz confessions

The perverse society.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780745645926

0745645925

9780745645933

0745645933

OCLC:

291391526