Reification and the Ecstasy of the Chelsea Boy

Abstract

This essay describes the convergence of psychological and political experience in gay men's development of subjectivity. It explores a process whereby gay men recognize themselves to be gay like other gays and articulate their individual way of being gay through this act of recognition. Reification is introduced to describe the gay subject's encounter with objectified gayness-a task of individuation that is often overlooked. The psycho-political space where these acts of recognition and individuation occur is called “Chelsea space,” here, so as to offer a way of thinking about substance use among urban, gay “Chelsea Boys.” Case material is woven through the essay, and different degrees of substance use are understood to reflect different uses of the subject/object encounter that occurs in Chelsea Space.

Key Words:

• Homosexuality
• substance abuse
• reification
• psychoanalytic theory
• gay substance abusers
• recognition
• Chelsea Boys