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The phrase "[[sexual difference]]", which has come into prominence in the debate between [[psychoanalysis]] and [[feminism]], is not part of [[Freud]]'s or [[Lacan]]'s [[psychoanalytic theory|theoretical]] [[:Category:Terms|vocabulary]].
[[Freud]] speaks only of the [[biology|anatomical]] ''distinction'' ]] between the sexes and its psychical consequences.<ref>[[Freud|Freud, Sigmund]]. "The Dissolution of the Oedipus Complex." SE XIX, 183. 1925.</ref>
[[Lacan]] speaks of [[sexual position|sexual ''position'' ]] and the [[sexual relationship|sexual ''relationship'']], and occasionally of the ''differentiation'' of the sexes.<ref>{{S4}} p.154</ref>
However, both [[Freud]] and [[Lacan]] address the question of [[sexual difference]], and an entry has been included for this temr term because it brings together an import set of related themes in [[Lacan]]'s work, and because it constitutes an important focus for [[feminist ]] approaches to [[Lacan]]'s [[Lacan|work]].
==Freud on Sexual Difference==
One of the basic presuppositions underlying [[Freud]]'s work is that just as there are certain physical differences between [[men]] and [[women]], so also there are psychical differences.
==Lacan on Sexual Difference==
Following [[Freud]], [[Lacan]] also engages with the problem of how the human infant becomes a [[sexed subject]].
For [[Lacan]], [[masculinity ]] and [[femininity]] are not [[biological]] essences but [[symbolic positionsposition]]s, and the assumption of one of these two positions is fundamental to the construction of [[[subjectivity]]; the [[subject]] is essentially a [[sexed subject]].
"[[Man]]" and "[[woman]]" are signifiers [[signifier]]s that stand for these two [[subjective positionsposition]]s.<ref>{{S20}} p.34</ref>
==Becoming a Sexed Subject==
For both [[Freud]] and [[Lacan]], the child is at first ignorant of [[sexual difference]] and so cannot take up a [[sexual position]].
Both [[Freud]] and [[Lacan]] see this process of taking up a sexual position as closely connected with the [[Oedipus complex]], but they differ on the precise nature of the connection.
For [[Freud]], the [[subject]]'s [[sexual position ]] is determined by the sex of the parent with whom the [[subject ]] [[identifies ]] in the [[Oedipus complex]] (if the [[subject ]] [[identifies ]] with the [[father]], he takes up a [[masculine ]] [[position]]; [[identification ]] with the [[mother ]] entails the assumption of a [[feminine ]] [[position]]).
For [[Lacan]], however, the [[Oedipus complex]] always involves a [[symbolic ]] [[identification ]] with the [[Father]], and hence [[Oedipus ]] [[identification ]] cannot determine [[sexual position]].
According to [[Lacan]], then, it is not [[identification ]] but the [[subject]]'s relationship with the [[phallus]] which determines [[sexual position]].
==="Having" or "Not Having" the Phallus===
This relationship can either be one of "having" or "not having"; [[men ]] have the [[symbolic ]] [[phallus]], and [[women ]] don't (or, to be more precise, [[men ]] are "not without having it" [''ils ne sont pas sans l'avoir'']).
The assumption of a sexual position is fundamental a symbolic act, and the difference between the sexes can only be conceived of on the symbolic plane.<ref>{{S4}} p.153</ref>
==="Am I a man or a woman?"===
However, there is no [[signifier]] of [[sexual difference]] as such which would permit the [[subject]] to fully [[symbolize]] the function of [[man]] and [[woman]], and hence it is impossible to attain a fully "normal, finished sexual position."
===No Signifier of Sexual Difference in the Symbolic Order===
Although the anatomy/[[biology]] of the [[subject]] plays a part in the question of which sexual position the [[subject]] will take up, it is a fundamental axiom in psychoanalytic theory that anatomy does not determine sexual position.
There is a rupture between the [[biological ]] aspect of [[sexual difference]] (for example at the level of the chromosomes) which is related to the reproductive function of sexuality, and the [[unconscious]], in which this reproductive function is not represented.
Given the non-representation of the reproductive function of sexuality in the [[unconscious]], "in the pysche there is nothing by which the subject may situate himself as a male or female being."<ref>{{S11}} p.204</ref>
There is no [[signifier ]] of [[sexual difference]] in the [[symbolic order]].
The only sexual signifier is the [[phallus]], and there is no "female" equivalent of this signifier:
===Dyammetry between Men and Woman===
It is this fundamental dissymetry in the [[signifier]] which leads to the dissymmetry between the [[Oedipus complex]] in men and women.
Whereas the [[male ]] [[subject desires ]] [[desire]]s the parent of the other sex and [[identifies ]] with the parent of the same sex, the [[female ]] [[subject desires ]] [[desire]]s the parent of the same sex and "is required to take the image of the other sex as the basis of its identification."<ref>{{S3}} p.176</ref>
<blockquote>"For a woman the realization of her sex is not accomplished in the Oedipus complex in a way symmetrical to that of the man's, not by identification with the mother, but on the contrary by identifcation with the paternal object, which assgns her an extra detour."<ref>{{S3}} p.172</ref></blockquote>
===Opposition Masculine-Feminine===
If, then, there is no [[symbol]] for the opposition [[masculine]]-[[feminine]] as such, the only way to understand [[sexual difference]] is in terms of the opposition [[activity]]-[[passivity]].<ref>{{S11}} p.192</ref>
This is why the question of what one is to do as a [[man]] or a [[woman]] is a drama which is situated entirely in the field of the [[Other]],<ref>{{S11}} p.204</ref> which is to say that the subject can only realize his [[sexuality]] on the [[symbolic]] level.<ref>{{S3}} p.170</ref>
==See Also==
==References==
<references/>
# [[Freud|Freud, Sigmund]]. (1908c). On the sexual theories of children. SE, 9: 205-226.
# ——. (1923e). The infantile genital organization (An interpolation into the theory of sexuality). SE, 19: 141-145.
# [[Lacan, Jacques]]. (1966). "''La signification du phallus (Die Bedeutung des Phallus)''." [[Écrits, ]]. 685-695. Paris: Le Seuil. (Original work published 1958)
[[Category:Psychoanalysis]]
