El Mal de Portnoy / Portnoy's Complaint

El mal de Portnoy, escrita en tono subversivo y directo, es un mon logo de un joven soltero jud o que se confiesa con su psicoanalista en un lenguaje « ntimo, detallado y abusivo .

Portnoy, mal de llamado as por Alexander Portnoy (1933- )]: trastorno en el que los impulsos altruistas y morales se experimentan con mucha intensidad, pero se hallan en perpetua guerra con el deseo sexual m s extremado y, en ocasiones, perverso.

Al respecto dice Spielvogel: «Abundan los actos de exhibicionismo, voyeurismo, fetichismo y autoerotismo, as como el coito oral; no obstante, y como consecuencia de la "moral" del paciente, ni la fantas a ni el acto resultan en una aut ntica gratificaci n sexual, sino en otro tipo de sentimientos, que se imponen a todos los dem s: la verg enza y el temor al castigo, sobre todo en forma de castraci n (Spielvogel, O., «El pene confuso , Internationale Zeitschrift f r Psychoanalyse, vol. XXIV, p. 909). Spielvogel considera que estos s ntomas pueden remontarse a los v nculos que hayan prevalecido en la relaci n madre-hijo.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

The groundbreaking novel from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of American Pastoral that originally propelled its author to literary stardom: told in a continuous monologue from patient to psychoanalyst, this masterpiece draws us into the turbulent mind of one lust-ridden young Jewish bachelor named Alexander Portnoy.

One of The Atlantic's Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years

"Deliciously funny . . . absurd and exuberant, wild and uproarious . . . a brilliantly vivid reading experience"--The New York Times Book Review

"Touching as well as hilariously lewd . . . Roth is vibrantly talented"--New York Review of Books

Portnoy's Complaint n. after Alexander Portnoy (1933- )] A disorder in which strongly-felt ethical and altruistic impulses are perpetually warring with extreme sexual longings, often of a perverse nature.

Spielvogel says: 'Acts of exhibitionism, voyeurism, fetishism, auto-eroticism and oral coitus are plentiful; as a consequence of the patient's "morality," however, neither fantasy nor act issues in genuine sexual gratification, but rather in overriding feelings of shame and the dread of retribution, particularly in the form of castration.' (Spielvogel, O. "The Puzzled Penis," Internationale Zeitschrift f r Psychoanalyse, Vol. XXIV, p. 909.) It is believed by Spielvogel that many of the symptoms can be traced to the bonds obtaining in the mother-child relationship.