本論文旨在討論柏拉圖論述愛的兩個對話錄、其中的內在衝突，以及歷來批評的謬誤。我試圖用精神分析談愛與性的觀點重新閱讀西方系統地談愛與昇華最早的這兩篇對話：《饗宴篇》及《斐德若斯篇》。雖然這兩篇對話表面上都強調淨化欲望，昇華激情，但其結構、語言、取景都往往脫離原本超越的主題，反而創造了一種以激情為底的知識論。兩篇中蘇格拉底都提供了愛的論述，教導什麼是真愛、崇高的愛，但那些昇華的步驟卻被語言或戲劇的場景洩漏其破綻。在兩篇對話錄裡，男同都是邁向真愛的選民，但令人不解的是，在《饗宴篇》的後段，蘇格拉底竟引用一位女祭司的話來說明真愛的實現。表面看來，蘇格拉底前衛極了，很有女權意識，但最後證明女祭司讚頌的仍是男同擁護的真愛；說到底，西方論愛的哲學首作沒有女人的位子。然而，在《饗宴篇》最後，一場跨越哲學朝向戲劇的場景發生了。Alcibiades借酒裝瘋，大發狂言，當幾乎所有人都視愛為一種真理的實踐時，Alcibiades體現的愛卻揉雜了愛與死，希望與毀滅。但蘇格拉底也不是省油的燈，經過拉岡的解讀，蘇格拉底與Alcibiades的一番對話可視為精神分析的前身。更者，就在我們以為女人在柏拉圖論愛的兩篇對話完全缺席的時候，Alcibiades的脫韁情慾跟古希臘哲學家及醫生所以為的女性情慾不謀而合。至此，古希臘文學、醫學作品裡男人（靈魂、昇華）、女人（身體、欲望綁身）的二分法破解了。蘇格拉底給了我們愛的論述，Alcibiades卻傾吐了一段戀人絮語，當批評家們傾其全力鞏固蘇格拉底的權威時，Alcibiades往往被隱沒了，我的論文以現代的欲望論述回頭去看這兩者，期望給他們一個比較平衡的關係。
我的論文分為五章。第一章概論我的論文處理方向及方法，並從柏拉圖對話錄中勾勒一個論述愛的線索。另外，回顧以往的批評論述，從中歸納幾種批評路線，並找出我認為值得商榷的觀點。第二章討論蘇格拉底論愛的社會背景及文化狀況，以及蘇格拉底在當時的時空底下如何特異地運用一種後來為拉岡所說的精神分析技術來引出欲望的本質。第三章分析兩個對話錄中大前提與細節的扞挌，如何使得昇華的主題站不穩腳。第四章談蘇格拉底在其他對話錄中如何分析欲望、女人在這兩部對話中角色如何被位移，以及在Alcibiades身上發現的女性欲望，和在他身上（正在）發生的另一種愛的意義。第五章結論。

This thesis is a study of Plato’s erotic dialogues, namely the Symposium and the Phaedrus, the inherent tension of the Platonic eros, and the critical pitfall. Rather than a consistent and unitary theory of love, true love contested in Plato’s erotic dialogues is polyvalent with heterogeneous forces. The setting, the erotic scenario, and the language disrupt the original course of moderation and transcendence. Certain unsettled desire always escapes the knowledge of love and deviates from its original aim of abstinence, leaving the subliminatory motif perplexed, unable to justify itself. Alcibiades in the Symposium exemplifies and embodies this failure of sublimation. More importantly, while the female voice appropriated by Socrates via the priestess Diotima tends to conceal the lethal aspect of female eros incompatible to Platonic love by binding it to reproductive activity, Alcibiades’s violent desire runs parallel with the desire in woman, generally assumed to be excessive and untamable by classical Athenians, especially doctors and philosophers. Nevertheless, numerous critics dismiss the dramatic effects aroused by Alcibiades or assimilated it into the central doctrine of love, not to mention to reveal the striking resemblance between the excessive desire of Alcibiades and female eros. In my thesis, I investigate Platonic eros from a psychoanalytical point of view in the hope of unveiling the crux of the erotic drama, and the curious sway between transcendence and immanence in the erotic dialogues. Insofar Platonic eros anticipates Freud’s theory of sexual drive, the latter in turn illuminates the logic and the immanent tension of the former. Besides, Lacan’s returning route to Freud via Socrates throws light upon a different reading of the erotic dialogues in terms of contemporary theories on love and sexuality and to a certain extent fills the gap left by the traditional readings of Plato’s erotic dialogues as coherent and unified.
This thesis is divided into five parts. In the first chapter, I give the background of the study by clarifying the main terminology, reviewing Plato’s dialogues on love, surveying previous criticism, justifying my area of study, and outlining the whole thesis. The second chapter discusses the original social and cultural background of Plato’s theory of love--the practice of homosexuality between a male adult and a teenage boy--and the grounds on which Plato appropriates and modifies the existing social code to support his teaching. Moreover, I justify the special technique of Socrates in mastering desire and love in Platonic corpus in terms of psychoanalytic theory. Chapter 3 discusses the mechanism of the Platonic sublimation and the disturbance embedded in the construction of a purified eros. Chapter 4 explores Socrates’ hermeneutics of desire in the Platonic corpus and investigates where female eros is situated. Lastly, I draw the focus back to the erotic dialogues, and discuss female desire materialized in Alcbiades in view of a new signification of love. In chapter 5, I will restate my arguments and offer my conclusion.

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