The Difficulties of Addressing Sexuality in Modern Psychoanalysis

The present graduate qualification work is devoted to the study of the concept of sexual. This concept is still one of the most important and relevant topics in contemporary psychoanalysis. Also, it is considered to be one the distinctive elements of Freud's approach (or freudism). The problem statement's complexity is strongly related to the derivations and even bifurcations that the mentioned concept has been subjected throughout the evolution of the psychoanalytic thought. The sexual as a mental process of the specific investment can lose its central position due to the development of some branches of Anglo-Saxon psychoanalysis. If we take an example of the French school, the reference to the sexual remains to be the main one, but is it enough clear and unambiguous? After all, it is a rather common case that concepts that have the same identifying meaning seem to be evident at first glance, like sexual and what it hides. Moreover, these concepts seem to be not needed to be defined. Nevertheless, this concept is highly problematic. It constantly requires supplementary clarification. It happens since the definition of sexual as an organizing factor of the mental life is pretty often subject to silence. This is the reason why even professional analysts are being confused and lose their vigilance. The practical value of the present research lies in the existing need to return the concept of sexual in its metapsychological field. Furthermore, this field should be in proportion to its importance in the mental process in general and during a session in particular. This graduate qualification work contains researches on the theoretical's evolution of the sexual including examples of unsolvable situations that can occur in analytical practice. However, the solution to such kind of situations lies in the particular analyst's functioning during the session - his experience of figurability as well as experience of regridience (French term, close to the regression but it has slightly different meaning that is also exposed in the present work). By virtue of these experiences the negative traumatic experience that has occurred in the infantile period becomes mentally representable and accessible to the thought. The empirical study of this work is devoted to the description and the analysis of the clinical vignettes, issued from the therapeutic practice of the well-known French psychoanalysts.