Polymorphous
Related: perversion - psychology - Sigmund Freud
Polymorphously perverse (psychoanalysis)
Sigmund Freud believed that the libido developed in individuals by changing its object. He argued that humans are born "polymorphously perverse," meaning that any number of objects could be a source of pleasure. He further argued that, as humans developed, they fixated on different and specific objects through their stages of development—first in the oral stage (exemplified by an infant's pleasure in nursing), then in the anal stage (exemplified by a toddler's pleasure in controlling his or her bowels), then in the phallic stage. Freud argued that children then passed through a stage where they fixated on the parent of the opposite sex and thought the same-sexed parent a rival. Freud named his new theory the Oedipus Complex after the famous Greek tragedy by Sophocles.“I found in myself a constant love for my mother, and jealousy of my father. I now consider this to be a universal event in childhood,” Freud said. Freud sought to anchor this pattern of development in the dynamics of the mind. Each stage is a progression into adult sexual maturity, characterized by a strong ego and the ability to delay gratification. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigmund_Freud#Psychosexual_development [Oct 2005]
The pursuit of "abnormal" sexual objects without repression. Freud at one point lists five forms of perversion, which is to say five ways that an individual "differs from the normal": "first, by disregarding the barrier of species (the gulf between men and animals), secondly, by overstepping the barrier against disgust, thirdly that against incest (the prohibition against seeking sexual satisfaction from near blood-relations), fourthly that against members of one's own sex and fifthly the transferring of the part played by the genitals to other organs and areas of the body" . He makes clear that a young child will not recognize any of these five points as abnormal—and only does so through the process of education. For this reason, he calls children "polymorphously perverse" . --Freud, Sigmund. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud. Trans. James Strachey. 24 vols. London: Hogarth, 1953-74. via Felluga, Dino. "Terms Used by Psychoanalysis." Introductory Guide to Critical Theory.[Nov. 28, 2003]. Purdue U. [Apr 2004]. http://www.purdue.edu/guidetotheory/psychoanalysis/psychterms.html.
The Bed (1967) - James Broughton
The Bed (1968) - James Broughton
A perfect visual representation of the polymorphously perverse eroticism of the American counterculture and its Zen-like acceptance of all sexes and possibilities as one. Even the camera angle emphasizes the casualness and joyful abandon with which sex is viewed by the moment.
The entire cast of this delightful, wise manifesto of counterculture sensibility performs in the nude. An ornate bed, magically located in a meadow, provides as always, the stage for man's most significantmoments; birth, sex, death. The actors, who exuberantly perform scenes of the human comedy, include Imogene Cunningham, AlanWatts, and other San Francisco artists and writers. While even avant-garde nudity seems often to betray an absence of joyful or uncomplicated sex, The Bed displays a smiling, polymorphously-perverse eroticism.
For once, penises appear in love scenes, but they are limp, denotic not impotence but the precise moment in time at which this film was made. --via the 2005 reprint of Film As a Subversive Art (1974) - Amos Vogel
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