Perversion, or turning a blind eye – not an outdated concept

The term ‘perversion’ has always attracted considerable controversy. Perhaps a somewhat unfortunate choice, perversion easily implies a norm, for example a deviation from an accepted sexual norm,[i] and a judgement about how wrong or right that deviation is, but the term has remained relevant and is used to assist particularly with people whose sexual life, experiences and fantasies makes them suffer.^[ii]  Freud defined perversion in the context of the child’s negotiation of the Oedipal complex, to manage castration anxiety, which led to the presence of two states of mind, existing alongside each other. Perversion was further developed by Freud in Fetishism^[iii] and Splitting of the ego in the process of defence.^[iv] Perversion was also defined by Stoller who considered perversion to be a reliving of trauma through the erotization of hatred.[v] Hostility resulting from previous abuse or trauma is enacted through a sexual act with a de-humanised other. The abuse is re-enacted: the hatred is erotised resulting in triumph over the other. The abused becomes an abuser and no longer suffers.[vi]

But central in both Freud and Stoller’s ideas is the existence of two perceptions of the same experience existing parallel to each other. Central in Freud’s thinking is ‘disavowal’, that is, knowing there is a reality, but not wishing to know it: ‘disavowal’ is about negating the truth. Perversion includes a negation, a choice, an action that includes some degree of will. There is a degree of consciousness to the negation of truth and therefore perversion because there is an action with the effect of reducing anxiety that belongs to the truth while knowing, at least in part, the reason for doing so. The involvement of will resulting in action is clear in “The Cambridge Dictionary” description of ‘negation’ as ‘the action of causing something to not exist or to have no effect.’

With the general focus on perversion to describe what may be seen as pathological or abnormal behaviour, there is a loss of the importance of a negation of truth that is so central to the concept of perversion.

Perversion is overlapping, yet different from narcissism. Narcissism generally denies reality using primary defence mechanisms, for example, denial, or idealisation, in which there is no conscious knowledge of a conflict or the repressed painful reality. Whereas narcissism is about blindness, as is beautifully described in mythology (for example the myth of Narcissus[vii]), perversion is about “turning a blind eye”. The perverse state of mind acknowledges reality (truth), and at the same time denies it. Perversion, therefore, reflects a state of mind and not an act, or pathological behaviour.

Perversion is not only present in the individual. Susan Long considers perversion in the context of leadership and groups.[viii] She says: “It has to do with individual pleasure at the expense of a more general good, often to the extent of not recognising the existence of others or their rights. It reflects a state of primary narcissism.” [ix]  Individual pleasure at the expense of the general good, the reality, is turned into the perverted goodness of the leader for which others need to be grateful.

The perversion of leadership and reality is described in Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games, which is a dystopic novella about the Capitol and its thirteen districts which the Capitol brutally subjects to its will.[x] The Capitol is led by President Snow, an authoritarian and ruthless leader. In return of the Capitol’s provision of ‘Protection’ and ‘Order’, the districts provide labour, and commodities like wood and coal, and agricultural produce. The totalitarian repression of the districts is unmistakenly encountered in the annual ‘Hunger Games’ when twenty-four children, taken from the districts, fight to the death as a way of the districts repenting an uprising against the Capitol many years ago. The children, called ‘Tributes’, are ‘reaped’ every year and become loved and cherished by the Capitol’s citizens, while, in fact, they are being dehumanised, objects to be killed.

The Hunger Games theme overlaps with the myth of Minos and Theseus.^[xi] Minos is a similar figure to President Snow, greedy and cruel, whose son Androgeus had been killed by a ferocious bull of Poseidon. In retribution, he gave orders that the Athenians should send seven youths and seven maidens every ninth years as tribute to his Cretan labyrinth, where his Minotaur (a perverse creature, half-man, half-bull) waited to devour them. Theseus volunteered on the understanding that if he conquered the minotaur the tribute would be remitted. Aided by Ariadne, he succeeded in slaying the Minotaur and was instructed to sacrifice it to Poseidon.

Turning back to the Hunger Games, the ruthless child murders are virtuously presented while the Capitol celebrates the games and the one surviving child, the ‘Victor’. Stripped from all private life, the Victor is then sadistically turned into a mentor for newly reaped Tributes.  The Victors receive acknowledgement, appreciation, a luxury house, food and are looked after by the Capitol. In other words, the child homicide is turned into an act of gratitude of the Capitol.

The need to be central and powerful is in service of avoiding humility, humiliation and shame. In Collins’ book this is personified by President Snow, the president of the Capitol. His love for the white rose, a symbol of pureness, is in fact a symbol of the perversion he embodies. When Katniss – the leader and symbol of hope for the rebels who challenge the Capitol – first meets President Snow, she immediately notices the smell of blood mixed with the smell of the white rose on his lapel.

In the prequel to the ‘Hunger Games’, Snow’s deprivation of maternal love is clear; he is raised by his grandmother, and as a young adult the early trauma of the loss of his mother is repeated when he is deserted by his love.[xii] There is hardly a mention of his father; there is no superego, no paternal function. He had turned into a singular personality, both man and woman, while he appears to care for and reign over his people, sadistically, perhaps in an identification with the mother figure he could not miss or mourn the loss off.

What Katniss doesn’t know is that President Snow’s mouth is full of bloody sores that are the source of the smell. President Snow once poisoned all his allies, concerned that they would become too powerful. To allay any suspicion, Snow drank the poison as well and gave himself the antidote afterward. However, the antidote was not a perfect solution. He developed bloody sores as a reaction to his brief poisoning. This is the primary reason Snow surrounds himself with white roses. They are ostensibly a show of his purity and symbol of beauty, a version of himself Snow finds important to promote. But their real use is that the strong smell is supposed to cover up the smell of blood and of the young Coriolanus Snow’s crime. In his meeting with Katniss, when he is about to meet his death by execution, the interplay of reality and perversion is once more played out when he no longer negates reality: he tells Katniss that they both know he is not beyond killing children and he can no longer turn a blind eye to the destruction of his body.

[i] Freud, S. (1905d). Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality. S. E., 7: 123–246. London: Hogarth.

[ii] For a summary of various definitions of the concept of perversion see: Wood, H. (2003). Psychoanalytic Theories of Perversion Reformulated. Reformulation, Summer, pp.26-31.

[iii] Freud, S. (1927e). Fetishism. S. E., 21: 147–158. London: Hogarth.

[iv] Freud, S. (1940e [1938]). Splitting of the ego in the process of defence. S. E., 23: 271–278. London: Hogarth.

[v] Stoller (1975). Perversion: the erotic form of hatred. London, Maresfield Press.

[vi] See also for example Anna Freud: Freud, A. (1926). The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defence. Reprinted Karnac: London (1993). She developed Ferenczi’s concept of identification with the aggressor as defence mechanism against the reliving of trauma and abuse.

[vii] Graves, R. (2017). The Greek Myths – The Complete and Definite Edition. UK; Penguin Books, pp. 286-288.

[viii] Long, S. (2008), ‘Understanding the Perverse State of Mind’, in Long, S. (2008), The Perverse Organisation and its Deadly Sins. Karnac, pp. 15– 43.

[ix] Primary narcissism in psychoanalytic theory is the earliest type of narcissism, in which the infant is focused on their own body and its satisfaction rather than toward the environment or people around them.

[x] Collins, S. (2008). The Hunger Games. Volume 1, 2 and 3. New York: Scholastic.

[xi] Graves, op. cit. pp. 336-345

[xii] Collins, S. (2020). The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. New York; Scholastic.