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he term is rarely used by [[Freud]] but is central to [[Lacan]]'s reorientation of [[psychoanalytic theory]].
For [[Lacan]] the concept of the [[phallus]] refers primarily to the [[imaginary]] and [[symbolic]] value taken on by the [[biological]] [[penis]] in the ourse of the [[subject]]'s accession to [[language]] and the [[symbolic]].
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Although he often refers to the existence of the phallic stage in which children believe the [[penis]] to be the sole sexual organ and explain femininity in terms of [[castration]], [[Freud]] normally uses the noun '[[phallus]]' to refer to the ancient symbol of royal power.
[[Lacan]]ians often attempt to find a [[phallus]]/[[penis]] distinction in [[Freud]]'s writings, but he himself usually uses the two words as synonyms and rarely makes a clear distinction between the two.
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[[Lacan]]'s theory of the [[phallus]] was elaborated in the 1950s.
In the 1955-6 seminar on the psychoses (published 1981), the [[phallus]] is described as the mediating element in the [[castration complex]] and as an [[imaginary]] [[object]] which the [[child]] finally recognizes as being in the possession of its [[father]].
In [[Lacan]]'s major paper on the significance of the [[phallus]] (1958), it is redefined as a privileged signifier which facilitates the articulation of [[desire]] and the ''logos'', and as the symbol of [[sexual difference]] itself.
The [[phallus]] is the [[object]] of the [[mother]]'s [[desire]], and the [[child]] identifies with it in an attempt to satisfy both the [[mother]]'s [[desire]] and its own [[desire]] for the [[mother]].
In this recasting of [[Freud]]'s description of the [[Oedipus complex]], the [[subject]]'s insertion into [[language]] and the [[symbolic]] is a form of [[castration]] which obliges the [[child]] to recognize that it cannot possess the [[phallus]] because it is not an attribute of an individual, but a [[symbol]].
It is the [[symbol]] of [[sexual difference]] in that there is no corresponding [[female]] [[symbol]] or [[signifier]]; both [[male]] and [[female]] [[subject]]s are constituted as [[male]] and [[female]] with reference to it.
Elsewhere [[Lacan]] describes the [[phallus]] as appearing in place of the [[lack]] of the [[signifier]] in the other (the [[mother]]) and as the [[signifier]] of [[desire]] itself (1991).
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The theory of the [[phallus]] is one of the most ocntroversial aspects of [[Lacan]]'s work and it has triggered important debates relating to the fraught relationship between [[psychoanalysis]] and [[feminism]].
It has been argued that the introduction of the concept of the [[phallus]] allows [[sexual difference]] to be understood in symbolic and non-biological terms and that it renders obsolete the criticisms of [[psychoanalysis]] that focus on the notorious issue of [[penis envy]].
Conversely, it has also been said that the symbolic function ascribe to the phallus valorizes the [[biological]] [[penis]] by making it a [[sign]] of masculine privilege, and thus naturalizes male dominance.
For Derrida, the notion of a 'privileged signifier' is unsatisfactory in that it contradicts [[Saussure]]'s basic thesis that [[signifier]]s acquire value and meaning only because they are different from other [[signifier]]s.
The idea of a privileged signifier implies the existence of a transcendental point of origin for [[language]] as a whole, and reproduces the [[metaphysics]] of [[logocentrism]] in the form of [[phallogocentrism]].
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However, Lacan warns his students that the complexity of this symbol might be missed if they simply identify it with the [[Symbolic]] phallus.<ref>S8, 296</ref>
