Lacan’s formalization [[Image:Graph.of .Sexuation.jpg|thumb|right]]The phrase "[[sexual difference ]]", which has come into prominence in his famous "formulas 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 sexuationthe [[biology|anatomical ''distinction'']] between the [[sexes]] and its [[psychical]] consequences.<ref>[[Freud|Freud,Sigmund]]. " presented by means The [[Dissolution]] of an idiosyncratic usage the Oedipus [[Complex]]." SE XIX, 183. 1925.</ref> [[Lacan]] speaks of mathematical symbols derived from symbolic logic [[sexual position|sexual ''position'']] and set theorythe [[sexual relationship|sexual ''relationship'']], attempts to distill Freud’s efforts to distinguish and occasionally of the girl’s experience ''differentiation'' of castration from the boy’ssexes.<ref>{{S4}} p. In 154</ref> However, both [[Freud]] and [[Lacan]] address the first logical moment question of masculine sexuation[[sexual difference]], and an exception to the phallic function—Lacan’s entry has been included for this 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 interdiction 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. In other [[words]], there are certain psychical characteristics that can be called '[[masculine]]' and [[others]] that can be called '[[feminine]].' Rather than trying to give any [[formal]] definition of castration—is positedthese [[terms]], which [[Freud]] limits himself to describing how a [[human]] [[subject]] comes to acquire [[masculine]] or [[feminine]] psychical characteristics. This is then followed by not an [[instinct]]ual or [[nature|natural]] [[process]], but a contradictory assertion complex one in which [[anatomical]] differences interact with [[social]] and psychical factors. The [[whole]] process revolves around the [[castration complex]], in which the [[masculinity|boy]] fears [[being]] deprived of his [[penis]] and the [[femininity|girl]], assuming that she has already been deprived of hers, develops [[penis envy]]. ==Lacan on Sexual Difference==Following [[Freud]], [[Lacan]] also engages with the problem of how the function’s universalityhuman [[infant]] becomes a [[sexed subject]]. Though abstracted beyond immediate recognition For [[Lacan]], it [[masculinity]] and [[femininity]] are not [[biological]] essences but [[symbolic position]]s, and the assumption of one of these two positions is possible fundamental to discern here the logic [[construction]] of [[subjectivity]]; the Freudian primal father[[subject]] is essentially a [[sexed subject]]. "[[Man]]" and "[[woman]]" are [[signifier]]s that stand for these two [[subjective position]]s.<ref>{{S20}} p.34</ref> ==Becoming a Sexed Subject==For both [[Freud]] and [[Lacan]], who lives the [[child]] is at first ignorant of [[sexual difference]] and so cannot take up a [[sexual position]]. It is only when the child discovers [[sexual difference]] in the masculine subject’s fantasy [[castration complex]] that he can begin to take up a [[sexual position]]. Both [[Freud]] and [[Lacan]] see this process of taking up a [[sexual]] position as closely connected with the exception that proves [[Oedipus complex]], but they differ on the universal rule precise [[nature]] of castrationthe connection. In 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 first logical moment assumption of a [[feminine castration]] [[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]], in contrastthen, it is asserted that there are no exceptions to not [[identification]] but the [[subject]]'s [[relationship]] with the phallic function[[phallus]] which determines [[sexual position]]. But there then follows ==="Having" or "Not Having" the Phallus===This relationship can either be one of "having" or "not having"; [[men]] have the notion that [[symbolic]] [[phallus]], and [[women]] don't (or, to be more precise, [[men]] are "not-allwithout having it" elements [''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> <blockquote>It is insofar as the feminine subjectfunction of man and woman is [[symbolized]], elements Lacan represents with it is insofar as it's literally uprooted from the [[domain]] of the symbol designating [[imaginary]] and situated in the negation domain of the universal quantifiersymbolic, that any normal, completed sexual position is realized.<ref>{{S3}} p.177</ref></blockquote> ==="Am I a man or a woman?"===However, are there is no [[signifier]] of [[sexual difference]] as such which would permit the [[subject ]] to fully [[symbolize]] the rule function of castration. This [[man]] and [[woman]], and hence it is the background [[impossible]] to Lacan’s controversial assertion that women are attain a fully "normal, finished sexual position."pas The [[subject]]'s sexual [[identity]] is thus always a rather precarious matter, a source of perpetual [[self]]-toutequestioning. The question of one's own sex (" Though numerous feministsAm I a man or a woman?") is a question which defines [[hysteria]]. The mysterious "other sex" is always the [[woman]], including luce irigarayfor both men and women, have attacked this claim as and therefore the question of the [[hysteric]] ("What is a rationalization woman?") is the same for what they see as women’s secondary status within both male and female [[hysterics]]. ===No Signifier of Sexual Difference in the Symbolic Order===Although the anatomy/[[biology]] of the [[subject]] plays a patriarchal socio-symbolic orderpart in the question of which sexual position the [[subject]] will take up, others have argued it is a fundamental axiom in [[psychoanalytic]] [[theory]] that anatomy does not determine sexual position. There is a rupture between the implication [[biological]] aspect of Lacan’s assertion [[sexual difference]] (for example at the level of the chromosomes) which is simply that womenrelated to the [[reproductive]] function of sexuality, or more precisely feminine subjectsand the [[unconscious]], do in which this reproductive function is not avail themselves to categorizationrepresented. Whereas masculine subjects routinely abstract themselves Given the non-[[representation]] of the reproductive function of sexuality in the [[unconscious]], "in such a way that they constitute a whole paradoxically unified by the exception embodied pysche there is [[nothing]] by which the primal father fantasy (subject may situate himself as a masculine subject, male or female being."<ref>{{S11}} p.204</ref> There is no [[signifier]] of [[sexual difference]] in colloquial termsthe [[symbolic order]]. The only sexual signifier is the [[phallus]], can be and there is no "female"just one equivalent of the guysthis signifier: <blockquote>"), feminine subjects, so it appears, feature an irreducible element Strictly [[speaking]] there is no [[symbolization]] of singularity, one resistant woman's sex as such... the phallus is a symbol to countingwhich there is no correspondent, that renders each no equivalent. It's a matter of them, one might say, a world unto herselfdissymetry in the signifier. The implications "<ref>{{S3}} p.176</ref></blockquote> Hence the [[phallus]] is "the pivot which completes ''in both sexes'' the questioning of Lacan’s suggestive their sex by the [[castration]] complex."<ref>{{E}} p.198</ref> ===Dyammetry between Men and oft-misunderstood theory Woman===It is this fundamental dissymmetry in the [[signifier]] which leads to the dissymmetry between the [[Oedipus complex]] in men and women. Whereas the [[male]] [[subject]] [[desire]]s the parent of sexual difference for feminism the other sex and [[identifies]] with the theory parent of the same sex, the [[female]] [[subject]] [[desire]]s the parent of sexuality have still the same sex and "is required to find their full elaborationtake the [[image]] of the other sex as the basis of its identification."<ref>{{S3}} p. One thing176</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, howevernot by identification with the mother, remains clear. For Lacanbut on the contrary by identification with the paternal [[object]], sex emerges as which assigns her an impasse resulting from extra detour."<ref>{{S3}} p.172</ref></blockquote> <blockquote>"This signifying dissymmetry determines the paths down which the impossibility of representing sexual difference symbolically and therefore of establishing sexual identitiesOedipus complex will [[pass]]. In contrast to The two paths make [[them]] both pass down the Anglosame trail -American ideology the trail of castration."gender<ref>{{S3}} p.176</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 polarity is the only way in which upholds the idea that masculinity and femininity are socially preestablished meanings that may never be fully embodied, sex, opposition [[male]]-[[female]] is represented in the Lacanian view[[psyche]], refers instead to since the impossibility of sexual meanings themselves, [[biological]] function of sexuality (reproduction) is not represented.<ref>{{S11}} p.204</ref> This is why the frustration question of every attempt what one is to define sexual difference do as a [[man]] or a [[woman]] is a drama which is situated entirely in positive terms, and therefore the field of the unforgiving resistance with [[Other]],<ref>{{S11}} p.204</ref> which is to say that the subject can only realize his [[sexuality necessarily thwarts ]] on the [[symbolic]] level.<ref>{{S3}} p.170</ref> ==See Also=={{See}}* [[Oedipus complex]] * [[Phallus]] ||* [[Sexuality]]* [[Sexual Relationship]]{{Also}} ==References==<div style="font-size:11px" class="references-small"><references/></div># [[Freud|Freud, Sigmund]]. (1908c). On the ambitions sexual theories of our conscious intentions[[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]][[Category:Jacques Lacan]][[Category:Dictionary]][[Category:Sexuality]][[Category:New]]
