Postoedipal Desire: Reading the Ménage à Trois

Abstract

It might seem, at first, a bit peculiar to regard the ménage à trois in Rousseau’s writings as an allegory for democracy, or at least as the possibility for reconfiguring sexual relations and as a consequence democratic relations. Of course, there has been no shortage of critics who have remarked on the significance of the ménage à trois in Rousseau’s writings. Typically, though, these critics have considered the frequent appearance of l’amour à trois in his work as symptomatic of personal pathology. The psychoanalyst René Laforgue, for instance, reads the ménage à trois as Rousseau’s attempt to overcome the guilt he feels for having caused his mother’s death. (Rousseau’s mother died a few days after he was born as a result of childbirth complications.) According to Laforgue, Rousseau’s relationship with Mme de Warens (and Claude Anet) was a means of atoning for his guilt by becoming the dutiful son. Starobinski, in contrast, comes to exactly the opposite conclusion. In looking at the l’amour à trois in Emile and the triangular relationship of Rousseau-Sophie d’Houdetot-St. Lambert, Starobinski argues that the ménage à trois in Rousseau’s writings is an attempt to gain mastery and become the all-knowing father figure. Rousseau, Starobinski writes, “seeks to become the teacher, the master, in sole possession of knowledge and happiness.”¹