The Phenomenology of Sex, Love, and Intimacy PDF
Preview The Phenomenology of Sex, Love, and Intimacy
The Phenomenology of Sex, love, and InTImacy The Phenomenology of Sex, Love, and Intimacy presents a phenomeno- logical exploration of love as it manifests itself through sexual desires and intimate relationships. Setting up a unique dialogue between psychology and philosophy, Susi Ferrarello offers a perspective through which clin- icians can inform their practice on diverse issues of human sexuality. Drawing on Husserl’s phenomenology, Ferrarello’s analysis of love spans a range of disciplines including psychology, theology, biology, epistemology, and axiology, as well as areas related to gender, consent, and political control. Combining Husserlian perspectives on ethics with a focus on lived-e xperience, this text will deepen therapists’ under- standing of love as the subject of interdisciplinary inquiry and enable them to locate questions of sexuality and intimacy within an academic framework. With key theoretical principles included to allow clinicians to think through and clarify their practice, this book will be a valuable tool for sex therapists, marriage and family therapists, and counselors, as well as psychology and philosophy students alike. Susi Ferrarello is a professor at California State University and Say- brook University, teaching philosophy to graduate students of psych- ology. She holds a PhD in Philosophy from Sorbonne and an MA in Human Rights and Political Science from the University of Bologna. The Phenomenology of Sex, love, and InTImacy Susi Ferrarello First published 2019 by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2019 Taylor & Francis The right of Susi Ferrarello to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging- in-Publication Data A catalog record for this title has been requested ISBN: 978-0-8153-5809-1 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-8153-5810-7 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-351-12326-6 (ebk) Typeset in Bembo by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear To Fabiola Ferrarello, with love and gratitude conTenTS Introduction: Sorting Out Problems 1 1 Practical Intentionality and Gefühlsintentionalität 10 2 Sex With and Without the Ego 27 3 Perversions 41 4 Introduction to the Phenomenology of Philia 54 5 Forced Intimacy 69 6 Jealousy 87 7 Agape 110 8 Sexual Normality and Intercorporeality 138 Index 156 IntroductIon Sorting Out Problems What do We talk About When We talk About Love? I never thought that love would have been the subject of my philo- sophical studies, partly because I always assumed that that kind of inves- tigation would pertain to different areas of human studies, such as poetry, music, art, and the like; partly because I believed that something whose nature is so ephemeral should never be questioned, otherwise its essence would fade away. Yet, as it often happens, we cannot decide what direc- tion our studies are going to take. A few years ago, I was invited to hold a series of lectures for a newborn program on Human Sexuality, in San Francisco. I accepted the invitation with great enthusiasm, which soon turned into a state of anxiety when I realized the breadth of study that this area would have required. Love seems to be the main constituent of the human soul; one discip- line is not enough to shed light on its essence. “Amore ipsa notitia est” Gregory the Great wrote in his Homelia in Evangelium, 2—“love itself is knowledge.” The graduate and undergraduate programs on human sexual- ity that are burgeoning today seem to have the difficult task of educating people on a vital subject (that for reasons I cannot address here was neg- lected for centuries) that encompasses different disciplines and therefore requires overcoming the obsolete boundary between Geistes- and Natur- Wissenschaften. Hence, when I started preparing for these lectures I easily understood that philosophy alone was not adequate; biology, chemistry, neurology, anthropology, geography, history religion, psychology, and
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