“abjection is coextensive in both individual identity and collective identity, which operate according to the same logic of abjection. Whereas an individual marks his difference from the maternal body through a process of abjection, society marks off its difference from animals through a process of abjection. In her analysis, however, the animal realm has been associated with the maternal, which ultimately represents the realm of nature from which human culture must separate to assert its humanity.” (Oliver & Trigo, 2003, p. xxxiii)
Freud’s conception of social formation is contested by those who place Freud outside the scientific tradition. The Freudian discursive formation is handicapped by the difficulty in associating with any established schools of thought. The conceptual novelty of Freudian Theory is too unfamiliar to be regarded a continuation or tradition. As a result, the idea of Freud as a humanist – as against a scientist – has taken currency. In this view, he is a discoverer of the ‘social formation of sexuality’. This discovery resonates with the time-tested formulations of Aristotle and Plato, whose conception of ‘eros and ethos’ finds congruence with Freud’s coining of ‘the id and the superego’. The dialectic, then and now, is between the opposing forces of desire and moral uprightness. The association of Freudian Theory with the wisdom of the Hellenistic Age has its benefits and costs. One major drawback is that it reduces Freud’s most unique and historically momentous discoveries through the suggested familiarity. (Shepherdson, 1999, p. 187)
Freud’s contribution to sociology is in forwarding an alternative to the traditional biomedical and socio-historical modes of analysis. At the core of the psychoanalytical model is the distinction between nature and culture. But specific features of Freudian Theory such as the unconscious, free association, repression, etc can be problematic as contemporary discussions of the body have brought to light. Under the psychoanalytic model, embodiment is understood to be remote with respect to conventional biological and historical approaches. In this respect, “the theoretical specificity of psychoanalysis is constantly effaced, and we are offered two contradictory images—biological essentialism and social construction—even though it is acknowledged that psychoanalysis is distinct from both.” (Shepherdson, 1999, p. 187)