Bisexuality in Psychoanalytic Theory: Interpreting the Resistance

This article discusses the evolution (or lack thereof) of the Freudian concept of bisexuality in psychoanalytic theory. The author addresses issues such as the sustained legacy, in psychoanalytic thought, of conflating biological sex, sexual orientation and gender identity (particularly with respect to bisexuality), portrayals of bisexual desire as fantastic/impossible and the linking of bisexuality with hysteria. Conceptualizations of bisexuality as an immature, primordial state of being are also addressed. The author further comments on the unfortunate tendency of the contemporary, queer-theory-inspired psychoanalytic authors, while critiquing the rigid traditional notions of sexual identity and object choice and advocating for “fluidity,” to bypass/omit bisexuality altogether. It is suggested that at present, bisexuality is either pathologized or rendered invisible in most psychoanalytic discourses, and that for this situation to change, bisexual voices will need to make themselves heard from within the psychoanalytic establishment, critiquing the theory on its own premises and offering viable alternative conceptualizations. These will need to include a psychoanalytic theory of bisexuality the author defines as experience-near.