FREE ASSOCIATING IN THE LAWFUL SPACE OF NO RULE: A REVIEW OF FEMININE LAW: FREUD, FREE SPEECH, AND THE VOICE OF DESIRE BY JILL GENTILE

Abstract

There are many ways to read Feminine Law: Freud, Free Speech and the Voice of Desire, by Jill Gentile. As Gentile herself notes, “You may read the book in its intended sequence or otherwise; follow my lead or your own meandering desires and interests” (p. xxl). We can choose to proceed step by step, through the wild, unruly pathways of the theoretical garden she is growing. Or we may eschew the path and meander, absorbing the words and letting them inspire our thoughts and associations. Gentile’s own meandering centers on the meaning of what she terms vaginal space, the unspoken feminine and what she identifies as feminine law. As she sees it, the feminine has been unsymbolized and without metaphor. The less-tangible nature of feminine space is undervalued, unnamed, whereas the tangible thing—the phallus—is valued and named. Space itself is a void, not a thing, and as such is challenging to name or even describe. The book, it turns out, is an example of space being experienced and utilized. It turns out too that the complexities found within this space can be challenging to describe. Grounding her wide-ranging exposition in psychoanalysis, Gentile begins with Freud, his discovery of the unconscious and the use of free association as a conduit to it. She connects the individual’s experience of free association with the constitutional social mandate conferring free speech. From here, she embarks on an ambitious exploration of democracy, how psychoanalysis and democracy share ideals and goals, and how psychoanalysis can inform democracy and better it. She puts it this way: “Psychoanalysis and democracy have at