Michel Foucault on Sexuality

with Keith Barrett BA PhD

• Location: Virtual

• Source/Event Link: Freud Museum London

“After Freud, Michel Foucault was the most important 20th century figure in shaping our current understanding of human sexuality. In this three-hour course, we will study his The History of Sexuality (1976 – 84).

In the first volume of this work, he argues – contra Freud - that sexuality must be understood as a social and historical construct, rather than an extra-social phenomenon of ‘biological drives’. We will explore his account of the emergence at the end of the 19th century of our contemporary experience of ‘sexuality’ – highlighting the role he sees psychoanalysis as playing in this process.

We will review the debate over his thesis that ‘homosexuality’ (and ‘heterosexuality’) are specific to contemporary Western culture, and explore his analysis (in the later volumes) of the very different experience of ‘sexuality’ that he finds in his studies of the cultures of ancient Greece and Rome.”