Chemsex: Reintroducing Sexuality in the Pleasure and Pain of the Infans

ABSTRACT

Chemsex is the rising phenomenon of recreational drug use during sex among queer people, involving a certain mindset and particular substances. Chemsex users face difficulties already noted in the psychoanalytic addiction treatment literature. However, chemsex also raises specific clinical challenges regarding queer sexuality. This article mainly draws on theories by Lacan, Aulagnier, Laplanche, Saketopoulou, and Olivienstein, and my clinical work with a specific patient. It argues that chemsex can lead to the rupture of formations akin to the false self used to inscribe subjectivity into a precariously heteronormative social bond, in a way that is akin to Zaltzman’s anarchic drive. Despite entailing numerous risks, it is also a means to cling to life, unbinding pleasure from inhibitions faced by queer analysands, such as negotiation of abuse or HIV status. Moreover, chemsex itself can be a vehicle of change, should the therapist admit it as a means of exploring sexuality or even, as McDougall suggests regarding addictions, as a solution to archaic anxieties. This can happen, as with my patient, in tandem with therapy and the processing of the challenging transference-countertransference it entails. In giving new meaning to this patient’s subjectivity and incorporating past traumatic experience, a more fulfilling life has the potential to be attained.

Acknowledgments

The author is grateful for the contribution of Anna Papadaki regarding the editing of the manuscript and its translation into English. He is also deeply thankful to Avgi Saketopoulou for supporting his work and urging him to present it.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

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Antonios Poulios

Dr. Antonios Poulios, M.Sc., Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and a psychoanalyst in private practice. He is also an adjunct professor in the Department of Psychology of the University of Crete, Greece, and a scientific fellow of the Laboratory of Clinical Research “Subjectivity and Social Bond” of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. Additionally, he is scientific coordinator of the community projects and interventions of the Greek Association of People Living with HIV “Positive Voice” (Red Umbrella Athens—A psychosocial day center for sex workers; Chemsex Support—Chemsex support and harm reduction service; Athens & Thessaloniki Checkpoints—HIV support and prevention community centers), and a member of the scientific and the training committees of Orlando LGBT+ “Mental Health without Stigma.” He is a member of the International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9212-7986