Sex, Metaphysics and Mental Dis-Ease
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Sex, Metaphysics, and Mental ‘Dis-ease’ A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy, Societies and Cultures at The University of Waikato by Jane Alexandra Cook _______________ 2012 Acknowledgements The researching and writing of this thesis has truly been a „fantastic voyage‟ made possible and enriched by the contributions of many. My very grateful thanks to the University of Waikato for the doctoral scholarship that enabled this work, and to my chief and assistant supervisors, Tracy Bowell and Carolyn Michelle, and all those in the Philosophy and Societies & Cultures Departments, for their knowledge, guidance, friendship, and the freedom to explore. Many thanks also to Luce Irigaray for the guidance of her writings, and for the opportunity to attend and learn from her seminar at the University of Nottingham in 2010. With love and heartfelt thanks, I dedicate this work to my family, and especially to the memory of my mother Doreen, to my partner Jan and her family, and to all the wonderful women who participated in, and inspired the theory and ideas behind, this (re)search. It is you who gave passion, wind, and wings to the journey. I also dedicate this endeavour to Kayla Wright, in the hope that, one day, things will be different. Abstract The ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus believed that our metaphysics determines our state of mind: a correct view of the nature of human and worldly existence brings inner peace and tranquillity; an incorrect view, inner turmoil. More recently, Australian philosopher John Bigelow lamented that, despite over 2000 years of theorizing, philosophers have yet to reach consensus on a correct metaphysics. This thesis posits the source of this metaphysical discontent to be the Platonic/Aristotelian conception of essence (or form) as a purely immaterial, male preserve, thereby reducing woman to the material source, (Logical) properties and (sexual) demise of man‟s essential being; this phallocentric misconception impelling a history of further misconceptions of essence, and of the metaphysical theories and binary logic based upon it. Through the construction of a genealogy and critique of various historical (re)conceptions and permutations of essence, I theorize the existence of an originary spirogenetic essence that causes, determines and motivates the (whole) individual, species, and sexuate form, function, growth, and development of every human being, the metaphysical and symbolic denial of this essence resulting in, not just inner turmoil, but some forms of mental disorder. Empirical research into female self-development and eating disorders yielded support for the hypothesis of a spirogenetic essence and essentially whole, subjective (sexual) female self, the metaphysically based, familialy/socially imposed denial, (de)construction and demonization of which is causing its fragmentation and loss, and the existential need to reconstruct this real, „de-formed‟ sexual female self/body into the ideal feminine „form‟ - the perfect pretend self - that will earn Paternal recognition, love, approval, and thus, ongoing subjective existence. While in modern, pre-feminist times, this perfect self was conceived and constructed as the sexual object of male desire, appropriation and control, in these post-feminist, post-modern times in which boys/men are reclaiming the feminine, girls/women have no option but to do what Plato advised, and „become a man‟. That is, they must hide/erase their real sexual female self/body and attain the boyishly perfect form/function that promises (limited) imitative access to phallic subjectivities and identities. Failure to attain or maintain this perfect, pretend (prophylactic) self, and a consequent state of existential distress, is resulting in eating and associated disorders, as an inner, self- adjudicated battle to control, punish, purify, desexualize, defeminize, and thus perfectly „re-form‟, the real ('Eve-il') sexual female self, as a means of subjective survival. This understanding resituates current discursive approaches to anorexia/bulimia as part of its pathogenic origin; resolution of these and associated existential (dis)orders requiring the metaphysical/social/discursive recognition of what Plato/Aristotle denied: a sexed, spirogenetic essence that is the source of persisting sameness and difference, fixity and fluidity, unity and plurality, and thus, of an essentially whole, subjective fe/male self that can only fully exist, develop, and be constructed within enduring bonds of unconditional, intersubjective recognition and love. It is within this spirogenetic model of human and worldly existence - as it frees patriarchal man from his forbidden, feared, feminizing, ho(m)mosexual desires - that I glimpse that long-sought Epicurean state of peace, contentment, and „ease‟. Table of Contents Section I: Metaphysics, Essences and Sexes Chapter 1 Metaphysics and its Discontents……………………………1 Chapter 2 A Genealogy of Essence……………….…………………...19 Chapter 3 Rethinking Essence and Subjectivity……………………….81 Section II: Research: Is there a Spirogenetic Essence and Essential Female Self? Chapter 4 (Re-)Conceptions of Anorexia……………………………...105 Chapter 5 Silentstones: Real, Lost and Pretend Selves……………….155 Chapter 6 Life Cycle of the Essential Female…………………………249 Section III: Reconceptions of Essence, Subjectivity and Metaphysics Chapter 7 A Sexed, Spirogenetic Model………………………….……287 Section I: Metaphysics, Essences, and Sexes Chapter 1 Metaphysics and its Discontents This thesis sets out to present a theoretical argument and empirical support for the seemingly counterintuitive proposition that philosophy is making us sick; or, more specifically, that our metaphysics is making us mentally ill. While I might like to claim this as a totally new and original idea, the possibility was in fact mooted around two and a half thousand years ago by the ancient Greek philosopher, Epicurus, who held the belief that our metaphysics determines our state of mind: a “correct” view of the nature of reality and human existence brings inner peace and tranquillity, an incorrect one, inner turmoil (cited in Diogenes, Bk.10, §24). For the ancient Greeks, an avid curiosity about (and desire to know and understand) the nature of worldly and human existence was fuelled by a more pressing need to know what in the world was real and enduring (and why), and what was not. According to skeptics such as Pyrrho, only if philosophers could correctly identify and separate the real from the illusory, and then correctly identify and define real things that have a definite, stable, knowable existence, could they ever hope to achieve an accurate and lasting knowledge of the nature of that reality. Therefore, for philosophers such as Plato who were wishing to counter the skeptics‟ claim that reality is indefinite, immeasurable, undecidable, and therefore unknowable, it was necessary to produce a metaphysics that would correctly identify and define a fixed, perceivable structure for reality, thus affirming the possibility of - and creating - knowledge of that structure. For only an accurate knowledge and understanding of human, worldly and cosmic existence would enable the correct explanation, prediction and thus control of natural phenomena, thereby removing fear of the unknown, and permitting man to happily exist within, interact with, and utilize his natural surroundings. And only if abstract entities such as „truth‟, „goodness‟ and „beauty‟ could be justifiably conceived as having a real, stable and enduring existence - and thus, a nature that was knowable and definable - might philosophers be in a position to formulate 1 and espouse universal moral principles and standards of „good‟ conduct and „right‟ living, with the goal of bringing happiness and contentment to all (Guthrie, 1967, p. 17, 90). Situated within this context, Epicurus‟ belief that a correct metaphysical account of reality was necessary for the successful and harmonious existence of the individual (and thus of the socius and polis) begins to make sense. Furthermore, Epicurus‟ philosophy appears to be as relevant to twenty-first century life and philosophical discourse as it was to the lives of the ancient Greeks. As the history and discoveries of Western science have shown us, it is through more clearly coming to know what, how and why animate and inanimate things exist, what is persisting and immutable, and what is transient and changeable, that we are, ideally, better placed to successfully interact with and therefore survive and flourish within the world at large. There is just one problem, however. As Australian philosopher John Bigelow (2006) laments, despite over two thousand years of discussion and debate, metaphysicians have