The rapid development of reproductive technologies has questioned
many essential concepts belonging to our symbolic universe, such as
human reproduction, motherhood and fatherhood; the transmission of
the biological and cultural inheritance of mankind and the
constitution of the psychic subject. These concepts, however, are
supported by ideologies and value systems which hide that they are
but theoretical constructions; consequently, they are taken as
describing the "natural" function of reproduction. In this sense,
the technological development takes the form of an increasing
medicalization of the human body, of the life, sexuality and desire
of people, especially of women. All this requires that we think
critically about the conditions of possibility of these
technologies and their psychological and ethical implications. In
this book the author provides a detailed and rigorous analysis
which locates the reproductive technologies in the historical
context of the progressive technification of the management of
human life, and their relation to the social and medical discourses
on femininity, maternity and infertility. From a psychoanalytic
point of view, culture and its discontents, violence, domination,
are related intimately to the problematic character of sexuality,
which includes the uncertainties of our desires. Social, medical,
anthropological and literary discourses try to define "maternal
desire" in order to control it: the definitions which capture it in
their nets are means to dominate desire as an object and to
"construct" the desiring subject. But psychoanalysis (through the
associations of the subjects in question) shows that we face here
an impossible question: one thing is the enunciated "demand", what
is said about one's own desire ("I want a child"), and a very
different one is the unconscious desire which disturbs the
conscious discourse and shows that there can be psychological
obstacles that interfere with the accomplishment of conscious
wishes, conflicts and contradictions emerging through the women's
words. In this book, the circulation of representations between the
individual imaginary and collective myths is the basis of a
multidisciplinary complex and original point of view, which
confronts a variety of discourses arising from psychoanalysis,
medicine, journalism, ethnology, mythology and literature.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
