Žižek's childhood sexual theories
anecdote · personal/autobiographical ·
retold in 3 talks
Žižek recalls two infantile sexual theories from his youth: (1) you make love in front of a window and if you do it well, a stork watching will bring you a child as a reward; (2) pregnancy requires constant daily work, 'today let's do the ears, tomorrow the eyes.'
≤2000talks it is told in, per year2026
As told 3
“you make love in front of a window and stork is observing you. and if you're doing well, the stork will bring you as a reward. another child”
“my idea was that when you fuck storks are observing you through the window and if you fuck nicely as a gratitude they bring you the child.”
“I as it were fell out of it, you know, like I observed myself from, 'What am I doing here, my god?'”
What it carries
one story, many jobs: the ideas this anecdote is deployed to argue, one tally mark per use (an idea page shows the same relation from the other end, as its shelf of stories)
contents · one story, 3 jobsuses
infantile sexuality
×2
fantasy support
×2
fantasy as answer to the enigma
×1
Its cast and sources
populated by
Martha Wolfenstein1Gérard Depardieu1Ernst Nolte / Ernst Krieck1Andrew Schally1Ed1Cecilia Alemani1Peter Verzilov1Vladimir Nabokov1
alongside works
Every retelling 3
22:20 Slavoj Zizek, Nadya Tolokonnikova and Paul Holdengraber / Los Angeles, 28 October 20252025-10-28 · 1:42:20
Žižek recalls two infantile sexual theories from his youth: (1) you make love in front of a window and if you do it well, a stork watching will bring you a child as a reward; (2) pregnancy requires constant daily work, 'today let's do the ears, tomorrow the eyes.', illustrating infantile sexuality,fantasy support
As a child Žižek knew sex made children but not the mechanism; he hypothesized that each sexual act contributes a body part (today the hair, tomorrow the nails) and that storks watching from the window bring the child as reward for good sex, a fantasy structure that combines two incompatible knowledge-sources., illustrating infantile sexuality,cognitive missing link,fantasy as answer to enigma of the other's desire
Žižek admits to 'falling out' of sexual acts in his youth, observing himself from outside and thinking 'What am I doing here, my god? Isn't this too stupid?', illustrating the inherent stupidity of the sexual act without fantasy support., illustrating fantasy support,subjectivity