Herculine Barbin and the problem of true sex

Abstract

The initial purpose of this article is to analyze the discursive logics that gave way to the treatment of sexuality under the thesis of a supposed sexual uniqueness. Subsequently, and within the framework of psychoanalytic theory, it is proposed to critically reflect on the scientific rationality that sustains the existence of a heteronormality from a “true sex”. Finally and followed by the memoirs of "Herculine Barbin", a nineteenth-century hermaphrodite ", the dominant discourses of his time were identified that were articulated to address his sexual identity. These discursive systems synthesized in a medical-legal process "solved the case" through a rectification of sex, change of name and clothing, determinations that he failed to cope with, committing suicide eight years later.