EPISTEMOPHILIA

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Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to Elizabeth Wilson for her exquisite supervision of the honours thesis that is the basis for this article. Thanks are also due to Natalya Lusty, Katrina Schlunke and Lucy Tatman for their assistance in moving the thesis into an article format.

Notes

1. The 24 texts consulted to form this definition were: Bartlett (1998), Briton (1997), Burt and Wallen (1999), Eagleton (1998), Finke (1997), Gallop (1992, 1994a, 1997), Garner (1995), Gatens (1994), Grant (2005), Harper (1997), hooks (1993, 1994), Johnson (1995), Kirby (1994), Mackwood (1997), Martusewicz (1997), Otte (1995), Pellegrini (1999), Pryer (2001), Robertson (1997), Scheman (1995), and Simon (1995).

2. Epistemophilia is the English translation of the German ‘Wisstrieb’ (Brooks 1993, 9).

3. Although I believe this to be a fair summary of Freud's understanding of epistemophilia, it should be noted that, for the sake of brevity, many key nuances have been omitted. Primarily these relate to the relationship of epistemophilia to other drives, namely the drive for mastery, scopophilia and the libido. In addition, I have omitted any explanation of the use of repression in moving from the childhood sexual researches to adult epistemophilia.

4. In adulthood, there are three expressions of epistemophilia. Epistemophilic inhibition reduces anxiety by mediating the threat of sexuality by closing down all intellectual endeavours, while sexualised thought tends to intensify fear by linking thinking to the libido and thus encouraging obsessional brooding (Freud 1953b, 1953c). Epistemophilic sublimation occurs when the libido is sublimated into learning and can result in the destruction of objects in order to know them (Freud 1953b). Epistemophilic sublimation is the only expression of epistemophilia that does not involve intellectual anxiety. Each expression of epistemophilia (with the exception of sublimation) is thus an attempt to control the world and to have sufficient mastery for living—with all its necessary ‘unknowables’—to be endurable.

5. Although the majority of feminist accounts conflate epistemophilia with violence, Toril Moi does not. Her account argues that epistemophilia, when it is understood as ‘tak[ing] the human body as [its] point of departure’ (1999, 300), is a productive critique of mind/body dualism which can be highly productive for feminists. See Moi (1999).

6. This model of facilitation is based on the peer-based facilitation used in sexual health promotion. See, for instance, Flood (2004), Irvine (1995), Kiss and Tell Collective (1994), Omang (2005), and the Sexual Health and Family Planning Act (2003).

7. Although not discussed in this article, Gallop has written on Keyssar's pedagogy. Specifically, in her text ‘The Teacher's Breasts’ (1994a)—which is a close reading of Keyssar's interpretation of the stage instruction to ‘touch the teacher's breasts’—Gallop argues that Keyssar promotes a maternal and nurturing pedagogy. For Gallop, the maternal is enacted by Keyssar in her slip from reading the stage instruction to ‘touch her breasts’ (a sexual act) to an interpretation of the touch as ‘fleeting’ and of one breast only (the child's reverence for the maternal nurturing breast). Gallop argues that Keyssar is attempting to replicate her pedagogical ideals within the representations of pedagogy in the class play. Gallop reads Keyssar's disproportionate distress at her male student's refusal of a non-erotic interpretation of the stage instructions as indicative of the gendered power relations in the class.

8. Gallop is particularly concerned with amorous relations policies (policies that ban not just sex between student and lecturer but also intense non-sexual personal relationships). Such policies are not found in Australia (with the exception of the University of Melbourne 2002); however, they are quite common in the United States. For US policies, see for example: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Graduate School (2006), University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Office of Student Life (2005), Buffalo State College (1997), and President and Fellows of Harvard College (2006).