For an epistemology of transition: Paul B. Preciado, psychoanalysis and the regime of sexual difference

Abstract

This paper aims to illustrate Paul B. Preciado’s thought on the epistemology of transition, which should take over from the current epistemological regime of sexual difference based on heterobinarism. Starting in particular from the lecture given by Preciado in Paris in 2019, we intend to focus on the main axes of Preciado’s thought on the topic: first and foremost, the necessity of the denaturalization of gender with respect to biological sex; the denunciation of the normalization and medicalization endured by trans or intersex bodies, “deviants” with respect to heterobinarism; the ethnocentrism and necropolitical power of medical and disciplinary institutions vis-à-vis “deviants” and “monstrous”; and the concept of “transition” elaborated by Preciado as a decolonization with respect to the epistemology and disciplinary institutions of the current regime of sexual difference.