Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Deviance as history: The future of perversion

  • Published:
Archives of Sexual Behavior Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

An approach to the social construction of concepts of sexual deviance and sexual perversions is considered. Deviance is conceptualized as a problem of control, perversion a problem of desire. These are seen as related to the larger sexual and nonsexual discursive practices of society and given to change as these contextualizing practices change. Changing conceptions regarding masturbation, homosexuality, pedophilia, and sadomasochism are examined.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Adorno, T., Frenkl-Brunswik, E. Levinson, D. J., and Sanford, R. N. (1950).The Authoritarian Personality abridged ed., Harper, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bakhtin, M. (1981).The Dialogical Imagination: Four Essays (trans. C. Emerson and M. Holmquist), University of Texas Press, Austin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barthes, R. (1968).Elements of Semiology (trans. A. Lavers and C. Smith), Hill & Wang, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baudrillard, J. (1983).Simulations (trans. P. Foss and P. Pattonm), Semiotext(e), New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Benjamin, J. (1988).The Bonds of Love: Psychoanalysis, Feminism, and the Problem of Domination Pantheon, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berger, J. (1972).Ways of Seeing, Penguin, Harmonsdworth.

  • Burke, K. (1966).Language as Symbolic Action University of California Press, Berkeley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Canquilhem, G. (1989).The Normal and the Pathological (trans. C. R. Fawcett), Zone Books, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davidson, A. I. (1987). How to do the history of psychoanalysis: A reading of Freud's “Three essays on the theory of sexuality,”Critical Inquiry, Winter, pp. 252–277.

  • Davis, M. S. (1983).Smut Erotic Reality/Obscene Ideology U. of Chicago Press, Chicago.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elias, N. (1978).The Civilizing Process: The Development of Manners Urizen, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Erikson, E. H. (1963).Childhood and Society Norton, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. (1978).The History of Sexuality: An Introduction, Vol. 1, (Hurley, R., trans., Pantheon, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freud, S. (1954). Three essays on the theory of sexuality. In Strachey, J., (ed. and transl.),Standard Edition, Vol. 7, Hogarth Press, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freud, S. (154). Contribution to a discussion of masturbation. In Strachey, J. (ed. and transl.),Standard Edition, Vol. 12, Hogarth Press, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freud, S. (1954). Instincts and their vicissitudes. In Strachey, J. (ed. and transl.),Standard Edition, Vol. 14, Hogarth Press London, pp. 109–140. (Original work published 1915)

    Google Scholar 

  • Gagnon, J. H., and Simon, W. (1973).Sexual Conduct: The Social Sources of Human Sexuality Aldine: Chicago.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gagnon, J. H., and Simon, W. (1987). The sexual scripting of oral genital contacts.Arch. Sex. Behav. 16: 1–25.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Goffman, E. (1959).The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life Doubleday/Anchor, Garden City, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Halperin, D. M. (1989).One Hundred Years of Homosexuality: And Other Essays on Greek Love Routledge, Chapman & Hall, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hillman, J. (1975). Towards the archetypal model for the masturbatory inhibition. InLoose Ends Spring Publications, Dallas, TX.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hillman, J. (1979). An essay on Pan. InPan and the Nightmare: Two Essays Spring Publications, Dallas, TX.

    Google Scholar 

  • Irvine, J. M. (1990).Disorders of Desire: Sex and Gender in Modern American Sexology Temple Univ. Press: Philadelphia, PA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaplan, L. J. (1990).Female Perversions: The Temptations of Emma Bovary Doubleday, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Katz, J. H. (1990). The invention of heterosexuality.Socialist Rev. 90/91: 7–34.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kernberg, O. (1988). Between conventionality and aggression: The boundaries of passion. In Gaylin, W., and Person, E. (eds.),Passionate Attachments Free Press, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kinsey, A. C., Pomeroy, W. B., and Martin, C. E. (1948).Sexual Behavior in the Human Male W. B. Saunders, Philadephia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kinsey, A. C., Pomeroy, W. B., Martin, C. E., and Gebhard, P. H. (1953).Sexual Behavior in the Human Female W. B. Saunders, Philadelphia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kohut, H. (1978). Thoughts on narcissism and narcissistic rage. In Ornstein, P. H. (ed.),The Search for the Self International University Press, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Laplanche, J., and Pontalis, J. B. (1974).The Language of Psychoanalysis (trans. D. Nicholson-Smith), Norton, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Laufer, M., and Laufer, M. (1989).Developmental Breakdown and Psychoanalytic Treatment in Adolescence: Clinical Studies Yale University Press, New Haven, CT.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levine, M. P., and Troiden, R. R. (1988). The Myth of Sexual Compulsivity.J. Sex Res. 25: 33–45.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lichtenstein, H. (1977).The Dilemma of Human Identity Jason Aronson, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lotringer, S. (1988).Overexposed: Treating Sexual Perversion in America Pantheon, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacKinnon, K. (1987). A feminist/political approach: Pleasure under patriarchy. In Geer, J., and O'Donoghue, W. (eds.),Theories of Human Sexuality Plenum Press, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Merleau-Ponty, M. (1962).The Phenomenology of Perception (trans. C. Smith), Routledge, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mulvey, L. (1975). Visual pleasure and narrative cinema.Screen 16(3): 6–18.

    Google Scholar 

  • Plummer, K. (1975).Sexual Stigma: An Interactionist Approach Routledge & Kegan Paul, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simon, W. (1973). The social, the erotic, and sensual: The complexities of sexual scripts. In Cole, J. K., and Diensbrier, R. (eds.),The Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, Vol. 23, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simon, W. (1989). The post-modernization of sex.J. Psychol Sex. Behav. Spring: 9–37.

  • Simon, W., and Gagnon, J. H. (1976). The anomie of affluence: A post-Mertonian conception.Am. J. Sociol. 82: 356–378.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simon, W., and Gagnon, J. H. (1986). Sexual scripts: Permanence and change.Arch. Sex. Behav. 15: 97–120.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Simon, W., and Gagnon, J. H. (1987). Scripting approach. In Geer, J., and O'Donoghue, W. (eds.),Theories of Human Sexuality Plenum Press, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simon, W., Kraft, D., and Kaplan, H. (1991). Oral sex: A critical overview. In Reinisch, J., Voeller, B., and Goldstein, M. (eds.),AIDS and Sex: A Biomedical and Behavioral Approach Oxford University Press, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stoller, R. J. (1975).Perversion Pantheon, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stoller, R. J. (1979).Sexual Excitement: The Dynamics of Erotic Life Pantheon, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stoller, R. J. (1985).Observing the Erotic Imagination. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stone, L. (1989). Divorce as a way of life.The New York Review of Books, March 2.

  • Symons, J. (1979).The Evolution of Human Sexuality Oxford University Press, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trilling, L. (1972).Sincerity and Authenticity Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weeks, J. (1985).Sexuality and Its Discontents: Meanings, Myths, and Modern Sexualities Routledge & Kegan Paul, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weinberg, T. (1983).Gay men, Gay Selves, Irvington, New York.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, University of Houston, 77004, Houston, TX, USA

    William Simon

Authors
  1. William Simon
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Simon, W. Deviance as history: The future of perversion. Arch Sex Behav 23, 1–20 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01541615

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01541615

Key words

Search

Navigation