On Not Having It All

Focusing on the increasing popularity of transgender online pornography among heterosexual men, this chapter examines the unconscious functions at play in such phantasies. Previous psychoanalytic interpretations understood the attraction as a relation to a body that “misses nothing”, combining breasts with a penis. Here, a different reading is advanced: the psychic charge lies in what is missing: the penis in place of the vagina becomes evidence of impaired procreative capacity, symbolising a damaged or infertile body. This absence provides unconscious relief from anxieties about womb envy and masculine vulnerability. In this view, the “pre-op” trans woman is equated with the man's own projected sense of inadequacy, with online pornography functioning defensively to disavow dependency and limit anxieties around generativity. Clinical material illustrates how these phantasies surface in analytic work, where they simultaneously illuminate and defend against deeper conflicts about masculinity and the body. Online pornography amplifies the accessibility and circulation of such phantasies, embedding them in algorithmic distribution. The chapter underscores how the digital availability of niche sexual scripts both reveals and reinforces unconscious processes, demanding renewed clinical attention to how sexuality, phantasy, and defensive structures are mediated through online infrastructures.