Sexual Dysfunction(s) in Iran: Imaginary Encounters with Otto Gross and Wilhelm Reich

Abstract

The article has two distinct but related aims. In the first part, I draw on previous research on Iranian sexual therapy, transgender studies, queer theory, psychoanalytic research and sexual economy to construct two clients. The first client is the subject of a Grossian, the second a Reichian, analysis. The symptoms were chosen to bring out the salient features of Gross and Reich's work, and to convey something of the complex psychological conflicts experienced by contemporary Iranians. In the second part of the article, I critique the limitations of Gross and Reich, while retaining those elements of their work still relevant to sexual emancipation.

Feminism, Islam, and Psychoanalysis-A psychoanalytic case study

“…When Ava speaks of a discourse in the Middle East that was far more open to same‐sex practices before colonialism, this is what we also find in Fozooni (), who argued that there was a “non‐classificatory discourse of sexual conduct for 19 th century Iranians” (p. 90). Same‐sex practices were simply regarded as being one kind of practice amongst others and something that “men also did before they were settled into heterosexual procreative sex with wives” (Najmabadi, 2005, cited in Fozooni, , p. 90). Ava reminds us that there used to be a very different tradition in the Middle East, one that might be regarded as being very open, one that has been greatly neglected by current society.…”

“…In the 19 th century, “the Orient was a place where one could look for sexual experience unobtainable in Europe” (Said, 1978/, p. 190). The double‐bind situation that queer Iranians find themselves in with regard to a whole set of ideas of morality might be rooted in “manufactured amnesia” (Fozooni, , p. 91). The suppression of sexual freedom, which is connected to an oblivion of Iranian heritage, developed through prohibitions by Western discourse.…”