Disgusted by the Female: A Psychoanalytic Reading of the Myth of Gorgon Medusa
Abstract
The article investigates the tale of Gorgon Medusa from the perspective of the psychoanalytic theory of the disgusting. Turning to the works of Sigmund Freud and
Lou Andreas-Salomé, the author uncovers the particularities of disgust at every stage of a child’s psychosexual development. Experiencing the disgusting turns out to be related to the maternal Other and the lost abject—a relation thoroughly examined in Julia Kristeva’s theory and bearing some reference to the conceptualization of trauma in the work of Bracha Lichtenberg Ettinger. The Gorgon myth unites psychoanalytical conceptions of castration anxiety with a feminist reflection on the topic of the female. In culture, the female is often repressed or marked as something horrible, vile, low, and disgusting. Through a discussion of the disgusting and sublime object, which are simultaneously incorporated in the image of the Gorgon, her link to the function of sublimation is revealed, as well as her connection to the birth of visual art as such. Finally, an encounter with Medusa’s unbearable gaze points to her being das Ding, which opens the door to understanding the female as Other.
References
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Žižek, Slavoj (1997). The Plague of Fantasies. London: Verso.
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Zupančič, Alenka (2012). Ethics of the Real: Kant, Lacan. London: Verso. Zupančič, Alenka (2017). What is Sex? Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Berkutova, Veronika (2020). «Feminitivy v russkom yazyke: psihoanaliticheskiy as- pect» [Feminitives in the Russian languages: A psychoanalytic aspect]. Lacanalia 33: 92–111.
Brouwer de, Didier (1995). «La fascination ou la passion de l’image: un itinéraire pour Ulysse qui se garde du cyclope comme personne.» Le Bulletin Freudien (As- sociation Freudienne de Belgique). http://www.association-freudienne.be/pdf/bul- letins/27-BF25–26.06.DE_BROUWER.pdf.
Butler, Judith (2004). «Bracha’s Eurydice.» Theory, Culture & Society 21.1: 95–100. Buci-Glucksmann, Christine (2013). «Vzglyad Meduzy ili Obnazheniye Zhivopisi» [The look of Medusa or the denudation of art]. In: Cabinet Ω. Bracha LichtenbergEttinger. St Petersburg: Skifiya-print.
Cain, Abigail (2018). «What Depictions of Medusa Say about the Way Society Views Powerful Women.» Artsy. https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-depictions-
medusa-way-society-views-powerful-women.
Cixous, Hélène (1976). «The Laugh of the Medusa.» Signs 1.4: 875–93.
Chiriaco, Sonia (2012). Le Désir foudroyé. Sortir du traumatisme par la psychanalyse.Paris: Navarin.
Dolto, Françoise (1984). L’image inconsciente du corps. Paris: Seuil.
Eliade, Mircea (1965). Mephistopheles and the Androgyne: Studies in Religious Myth and Symbol. New York: Sheed and Ward.
Epstein, Danièle (1993). «Autour de Méduse: Regard et Création.» Histoire de la Folie. http://www.histoiredelafolie.fr/psychiatrie-neurologie/daniele-epstein-au-
tour-de-meduse-regard-et-creation-1993.
Freud, Sigmund (1905). «Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality.» In The Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Vol. VII, London: Hogarth and the Institute
of Psychoanalysis.
Freud, Sigmund (1925). «Negation.» In The Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Vol. XIX, pp. 235–242. London: Hogarth and the Institute of Psychoanalysis.
Freud, Sigmund (1927). «Fetishism.» In The Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Vol. XXI, pp. 147–157. London: Hogarth and the Institute of Psychoanalysis.
Freud, Sigmund (1941). «Medusa’s Head.» International Journal for Psychoanalysis 22: 69.
Hippolyte, Jean. (1975). «A Spoken Commentary on Freud’s Verneinung by Jean Hyppolite.» In Jacques Lacan, The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book I: Freud’s Papers on
Technique, 1953–1954, pp. 289–299. New York: W. W. Norton & Co.
Ivleva, Larisa, and Mikhail Luriye (1997). «Ryazhenyy-demon, ryazhenyy v demona» [Disguised demon, disguised as a demon]. In Studies in Slavic Folklore and Folk Culture 1, ed. Andrey Arkhipova and Irene Polinskaya, pp. 63–82. Oakland: Berkeley Slavic Specialities.
Kristeva, Juila (1982). Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection. New York: Columbia University Press.
Lacan, Jacques (1977). The Seminar, Book XI. The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis. Richmond, Surrey: Hogarth Press.
Lacan, Jacques (1977). «The Signification of the Phallus.» In Écrits: A Selection. New York: W. W. Norton & Co.
Lacan, Jacques (1998). The Seminar, Book XX. Encore: On Feminine Sexuality, the Limits of Love and Knowledge. New York: W. W. Norton & Co.
Lacan, Jacques (2017). Formations of the Unconscious: The Seminar of Jacques Lacan,Book V. Cambridge: Polity.
Laplanche, Jean, and Jean-Bertrand Pontalis (1988). The Language of Psychoanalysis. London: Routledge.
Le Run, Jean-Louis (2005). «D’un millénaire à l’autre, Méduse.» Enfances & Psy 1.26: 43–54.
Levkiyevskaya, Yelena (2002). Slavyanskiy obereg. Semantika i struktura. [The Slavic guarding charm. Semantics and structure]. Moscow: Indrik.
Mitchell, Juliet (2001). Mad Men and Medusas: Reclaiming Hysteria. New York: Basic Books.
Pardo, Éléonore (2010). «Le regard médusé.» Recherches en psychoanalyse 1.9: 84–88.
Róheim Géza (1945). «Aphrodite, Or the Woman with a Penis.» The Psychoanalytic Quarterly 14.3: 350–90.
Sterba, Richard F. (1936). Handwörterbuch der psychoanalyse. Vienna: Internationaler psychoanalytischer Verlag.
Tremblay-Devirieux, Julie (2014). «Les écrits de la Méduse aujourd’hui: L’abjection du corps féminin dans les récits de Nelly Arcan.» Textimage. https://revue-textimage.
com/conferencier/03_parler_avec_meduse/tremblay-devirieux2.html.
Turkina, Olesya, and Viktor Mazin (2013). «Post pamyati ili Matritsa snyatiya zakly- atiya» [The fasting of the memory or the matrix of spell removal]. In: Cabinet Ω.
Bracha Lichtenberg Ettinger, pp. 16–55. St Petersburg: Skifiya-print.
Viennot, Éliane (2018). Le langage inclusif: pourquoi, comment. Petit précis historique et pratique. Donnemarie-Dontilly: Editions iXe.
Yuran, Ayten (2016). «Autizm: tochka ne-nachala» [Autism: The point of non-beginning]. Lacanalia 22: 87–92.
Žižek, Slavoj (1997). The Plague of Fantasies. London: Verso.
Žižek, Slavoj (2000). The Fragile Absolute: Or, Why is the Christian Legacy Worth Fighting For? London: Verso.
Zupančič, Alenka (2012). Ethics of the Real: Kant, Lacan. London: Verso. Zupančič, Alenka (2017). What is Sex? Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Published
2022-01-25
How to Cite
Berkutova, V. (2022). Disgusted by the Female: A Psychoanalytic Reading of the Myth of Gorgon Medusa. Stasis, 12(2). Retrieved from https://stasisjournal.net/index.php/journal/article/view/198
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