SOURCE: "Sexual Conflict and Self Disintegration in the Work of J. K. Huysmans," in Literature and Psychology, Vol. 41, No. 1, 2, 1995, pp. 37-51.

In the following essay, Leach uses three ofHuysmans's novels to illustrate aspects of the psychological theories of Heinz Kohut, contrasting these with traditional Freudian psychoanalysis.

In spite of the fact that Freudian concepts such as penis envy in women and the equation of possessing a female body to the state of being castrated are clearly antithetical to feminist values, Freudian psychoanalysis continues to play a central role in the critique of gender and sexuality. It is becoming increasingly clear, however, that psychoanalytic theory is in need of a tool allowing for the separation of the necessary from the unacceptable. As long as this is not found, psychoanalysis will continue to polarize the larger intellectual community into two groups. On the one side are those who make use...