Overexposed: Perverting Perversions (Semiotext(e) / Foreign Agents) [Paperback]

Sylvère Lotringer (Author)

Book Description

Series: Semiotext(e) / Foreign Agents | Publication Date: April 27, 2007

A report on the administration of deviant desire in specialized clinics that documents the way our postmodern society exposes sexuality to the point of overexposure.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Do you ever get aroused by your patient's fantasies? Do you discover through them something about your own sexuality? ;About my sexuality?You are exposed to a lot of fantasies. ;Oh yes. Quite frankly, I think it has a satiation effect on me. I've been a sex researcher for ten years, and sometimes I get fed up with it, you know. I talk to people about sex all day long, and it does get to be a drag.from Overexposed,The most perverse perversions are not always those one would expect. Originally conceived as an American update to Foucault's History of Sexuality, Overexposed is even more outrageous and thought-provoking today than it was twenty years ago when first published by a commercial publisher. By a strange reversal, rather than being punished, deviant desire now is administrated in specialized clinics under medical supervision. Sexual excess is being turned into a "boredom therapy" claiming to rid patients of their own desires by forcing them to indulge them past the point of satiety. But are perversions still perverse when they are vindicated unconditionally? At once clinical, bewildering, and deeply poignant, Overexposed shows how science can pervert itself by identifying too closely with its object. This insider's exposition of controversial cognitive behavioral methods (carried out with instruments straight out of A Clockwork Orange ;penile transducer? pupillometer?) is a hallucinatory document on the manner in which our postmodern society exposes sexuality to the point of overexposure ;in order to exterminate it.

" Overexposed is a most remarkable work... A brilliant piece of undercover reporting, from the strangest of strange lands." J.G. Ballard

" Overexposed is a voyage through hell. A gleaming, air-conditioned, sanitary, and polite hell where a triumphant psychotechnology replaces the old-fashioned shackles of the Law and "cures" the sex-offender by boring to death his desire. Sylvère Lotringer"s account of this charnel house of behaviorisim is deft, witty, and precise." Joel Kovel

About the Author

Sylvere Lotringer, general editor of Semiotext(e), lives in New York and Baja, California. He is the author of Overexposed: Perverting Perversions (Semiotext(e), 2007).

Product Details

• Paperback: 216 pages
• Publisher: Semiotext(e); Rev edition (April 27, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1584350458
• ISBN-13: 978-1584350453
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,250,193 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Discussion against art, June 6, 2010

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Zippo "Zippo" (Mexico) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Accident of Art (Semiotext(e) / Foreign Agents) (Paperback)

This rather short book - about 100 pages - is made up of a discussion (of sorts) about art. Two very intelligent and well-read persons talk about a wide variety of issues more or less closely related to general "problems" in the field of art and culture. They don't really talk to each other, it's more like two parallel monologues than a dialogue; one will say something which will cause the other to think of some other issue, and then the first person will connect that to yet another subject, but it's all very fragmentary. It seems they don't really listen to (or understand?) each other. They do come off as pompous at times, and seem to enjoy making sweeping and totalizing statements a little too much; there are very few attempts too provide any solid arguments (that would get in the way of the short and quotable pithy sound-bite). I personally disagree with most conclusions and/or ideas, but it's still a good book in that it makes me have to think through these things for myself. The issues discussed are fascinating.