phallus (phallus) Freud's work abounds in references to the penis. Freud argues that children of both sexes set great value on the penis, and that their discovery that some human beings do not possess a penis leads to important psychical consequences (see [[Castration Complex]]). However, the term 'phallus' rarely appears in Freud's work, and when it does it is used as a synonym of 'penis'Image:Kida_p. Freud does use the adjective 'phallic' more frequently, such as in the expression 'the phallic phase', but again this implies no rigorous distinction between the terms 'phallusgif |right|frame|' and 'penis', since the phallic phase denotes a stage in development in which the child (boy or girl) knows only one genital organ - the penis.Lacan generally prefers to use the term 'phallus' rather than 'penis' in order to emphasise the fact that what concerns psychoanalytic theory is not the male genital organ in its biological [[Real]]ity but the role that this organ plays in fantasy. Hence Lacan usually reserves the term 'penis' for the biological organ, and the term 'phallus' for the [[Imaginary]] and [[Symbolic]] functions of this organ.While this terminological distinction is not found in Freud's work, it responds to the logic implicit in Freud's formulations on the penis. For example, when Freud speaks of a [[Symbolic]] equation between the penis and the baby which allows the girl to appease her penis envy by having a child, it is clear that he is not talking about the [[Real]] organ (Freud, 1917c). It can be argued, then, that Lacan's terminological innovation simply clarifies certain distinctions that were already implicit in Freud's work.Although not prominent in Lacan's work before the midKid_A_In_Alphabet_Land_-1950s, the term 'phallus' occupies an ever more important place in his discourse thereafter.The phallus plays a central role in both the OEDIPUSCOMPLEx and in the theory of SEXUAL DIFFERENCE.. The phallus and the Oedipus complex The phallus is one of the three elements in the [[Imaginary]] triangle that constitutes the PREOEDIPAL PHASE. It iS an [[Imaginary]] object which circulates between the other two elements, the mother and the child (S3, 319). The mother desires this object and the child seeks to satisfy her desire by identifying with the phallus or with the phallic mother. _Phallus|Kid A In the Oedipus complex the father intervenes as a fourth term in this [[Imaginary]] triangle by castrating the child; that is, he makes it impossible for the child to identify with the [[Imaginary]] phallus. The child is then faced with the choice of accepting his castration (accepting that he cannot be the mother's phallus) or rejecting it.e The phallus and sexual difference Lacan argues that both boys and girls must assume their castration, in the sense that every child must renounce the possibility of being the phallus for the mother; this 'relationship to the phallus . . . is established without regard to the anatomical difference of the sexes' (E, 282). Alphabet Land Pacifies Another Pernicious Persona - The renunciation by both sexes of identification with the [[ImaginaryPhony Phallus!]] phallus paves the way for a relationship with the [[Symbolic]] phallus which is different for the sexes; the man has the [[Symbolic]] phallus (or, more precisely, 'he is not without having it' [il n'est pas sans l'avoir]), but the [[Woman]] does not. This is complicated by the fact that the man can only lay claim to the [[Symbolic]] phallus on condition that he has assumed his own castration (has given up being the [[Imaginary]] phallus), and by the fact that the [[Woman]]'s lack of the [[Symbolic]] phallus is also a kind of possession (S4, 153).The status of the phallus: [[Real]], [[Imaginary]] or [[Symbolic]]? Lacan speaks of the [[Real]] phallus, the [[Imaginary]] phallus and the [[Symbolic]] phallus:
ï The =Sigmund Freud===Phallus and Penis==[[RealFreud]] phallus As has already been observed, Lacan usually uses the term 'penis' to denote did not distinguish between the [[Realpenis]] biological organ and reserves the term 'phallus' to denote the as an actual ([[Imaginaryanatomical]] and ) [[Symbolic]] functions of this body|bodily organ. However, he does not always maintain this usage, occasionally using the term '[[Real]] phallus' to denote and the biological organ, or using the terms '[[Symbolic]] phallus' and '[[Symbolic]] penis' as if they were synonymous (S4, 153). This apparent confusion and semantic slippage has led some commentators to argue that the supposed distinction between the phallus and the penis is in fact highly unstable and that 'the phallus concept is the site of a regression towards the biological organ' (Macey, 1988: 191).While the [[Imaginarysignifier]] phallus and the of [[Symbolicsexual difference]] phallus are discussed more [[Symbolic]] phallus. The phallus has no corresponding female signifier; 'the
==Phallic Phase==[[Freud]] called the [[development|period]] between [[development|three and five years of age]] the "[[phallic phase]]." The [[phallic phase]] denotes a [[stage]] in [[development]] in which the [[child]] ([[boy]] or [[girl]]) [[knows]] only one [[biology|genital organ]] - the [[phallus is |penis]]. At this stage, infants of both [[sexes]] are dominated by the question of who possesses a penis and the related issue of its masturbatory jouissance ([[gratification]]). [[Freud]] argues that [[children]] of both [[sexual difference|sexes]] set great [[value]] on the [[phallus|penis]], and that their discovery that some [[human]] [[being]]s do not possess a symbol [[phallus|penis]] leads to important [[psyche|psychical]] consequences. Up to which there this point, the mother is no correspondentimagined as having a penis, no equivalentand the discovery that she [[lacks]] a penis, after an initial [[denial]], precipitates the [[Castration Complex|castration complex]]. It's a
matter <!--Freud had his first intuition of the primacy of the phallus as early as 1905 in "[[Three]] essays on the theory of sexuality"; it is explicitly discussed in "The [[infantile]] genital organization," which Freud offered in 1923 as a complement to "Three Essays." In this later [[text]], the predominance of the phallus is linked to the problematic of castration in the following way:<blockquote>The main characteristic of this 'infantile genital organization' is its [[difference]] from the final genital organization of the [[adult]]. This consists in the fact that, for both sexes, only one genital, namely the male one, comes into account. What is [[present]], therefore, is not a primacy of the genitals, but a dissymmetry primacy of the phallus. [ Freud 1923, p. 142 ]</blockquote>The fact that the essential [[role]] of only one genital organ is recognized at a certain stage in infantile [[sexual]] development implies that this primacy, from the outset, is not located in the realm of anatomical reality or on the level of organs, but precisely on the level of what a lack of the signifierorgan might [[represent]] subjectively.Freud ( 1923) makes the same radical [[distinction]] by linking castration to the phallic [[order]] and not to the penis.<blockquote>The lack of a penis [my italics] is regarded as a result of castration, and so now the child is faced with the task of coming to [[terms]] with castration in relation to himself. The further developments are too well known generally to make it necessary to recapitulate [[them]] here. But it seems to me that the [[significance]] of the [[Castration Complex|castration complex]] can only be rightly appreciated if its origin in the [[phase]] of phallic primacy is also taken into account. [ Freud' s italics] [p. 144]</blockquote>In fact, sexual difference is constituted from the outset on the basis of this [[notion]] of lack: the [[feminine]] genital organ is different from the [[masculine]] one only because it lacks something. In addition, the product of observation (S3perceptual reality) is immediately elaborated on the [[subjective]] level as a conception: Freud writes "the lack of a penis is regarded as." As Freud ( 1923) puts it, 176this lack confronts the child "with the task of coming to terms with castration in relation to himself" (p. 144). Both male --><!-- It is in the [[domain]] of these [[Freudian]] references that Lacan systematizes the problematics of the phallus as foundational to [[psychoanalytic]] theory. Specifically, Lacan establishes the phallus as the primordial signifier of desire in [[oedipal]] triangulation. The [[Oedipus]] complex plays itself out around locating the [[position]] of the phallus in relation to the desire of the mother, the child, and the father. A [[dialectical]] [[process]] develops in two modes: that of being the phallus and femalethat of having the phallus. -->
subjects assume their sex via the =Jacques Lacan=The term [[phallic]] occupies an important [[Symbolicplace]] phallus.Unlike the in [[ImaginaryLacanian]] phallus, the [[Symbolicspeech|discourse]] phallus cannot be negated, for on the . The [[Symbolicphallus]] plane an absence is just as much plays a positive entity as a presence (see E, 320). Thus even central role in both the [[WomanOedipus complex]], who lacks and in the theory of [[Symbolicsexual difference]] phallus .<!-- Although not prominent in one way, can also be said to possess it, since not having it the [[SymbolicLacan]] is itself a form 's [[Works of having (S4, 153). ConverselyJacques Lacan|work]] before the mid-1950s, the assumption of the term "[[Symbolicphallus]] phallus by the man is only possible on the basis of the prior assumption of " occupies an ever more important place in his own castration[[discourse]] thereafter. -->
===Not Penis===[[Lacan goes on in 1961 ]] generally prefers to state that use the term "[[Symbolicphallus]] " rather than "[[phallus is that which appears |penis]]" in order to emphasize the place of fact that what concerns [[psychoanalytic theory]] is not the lack of [[biology|male genital organ]] in its [[biology|biological]] [[reality]] but the signifier role that this organ plays in [[fantasy]]. Hence [[Lacan]] usually reserves the Other (S8term "[[phallus|penis]]" for the [[biology|biological organ]], 278-8 1). It is no ordinary signifier but and the term "[[phallus]]" for the [[Realimaginary]] and [[symbolic]] presence functions of desire itself (S8, 290)this [[biology|organ]]. In 1973 he states that [[Jacques Lacan]] [[chose]] to use the term "phallus" for [[the imaginary]] and symbolic [[Symbolicrepresentation]] phallus is 'of the penis in order to better distinguish the role of the penis in the signifier which does not have a signified' (S20, 75)fantasy [[life]] of both sexes from its anatomical role.
===Signifier===For [[Lacan]] focus on the function of the [[phallus]] as a [[signifier]] of [[lack]] and [[sexual difference]]. The [[Symbolicphallus]] phallus is written <fi in Lacanian algebra. However, [[Lacan warns his students that the complexity of this symbol might ]]ian [[theory]] should not be missed if they simply identify it confused with the [[Symbolicmale]] [[genital]] [[organ]] phallus (S8, 296)although it clearly carries those connotations. The symbol [[phallus]] is more correctly understood as designating first and foremost a [[signifier]] and in [[Lacan]]'the phallic function' (S8, 298)s [[system]] a particularly privileged [[signifier]]. In the early 1970s Lacan incorporates this symbol of the phallic function The [[phallus]] operates in his formulae all three of sexuation. Using predicate logic to articulate [[Lacan]]'s [[register]]s - the problems of sexual difference[[imaginary]], Lacan devises two formulae for the masculine position [[symbolic]] and the [[real]] - and two formulae for as his system develops it becomes the one single indivisible [[signifier]] that anchors the feminine position[[chain]] of [[signification]]. All four formulae revolve around the phallic function Indeed, which it is here equivalent with a particularly privileged [[signifier]] because it inaugurates the function process of castration[[signification]] itself.
e Criticisms ==Oedipus complex==The [[phallus]] is one of Lacan Of all Lacan'the three elements in the [[imaginary]] [[structure|triangle]] that constitutes the [[preoedipal phase]]. It is an [[imaginary]] [[object]] which circulates between the other two elements, the [[mother]] and the [[child]].<ref>{{S3}} p. 319</ref> The [[mother]] [[desire]]s ideas, his concept of this [[object]] and the [[child]] seeks to [[satisfy]] her [[desire]] by [[identifying]] with the [[phallus]] or with the [[phallus |phallic mother]]. In the [[Oedipus complex]] the [[father]] intervenes as a fourth term in this [[imaginary]] [[structure|triangle]] by [[castration|castrating]] the [[child]]; that is perhaps , he makes it [[impossible]] for the one which has given rise [[child]] to most controversy[[identify]] with the [[phallus|imaginary phallus]]. Objections to Lacan The [[child]] is then faced with the [[choice]] of accepting his [[castration]] (accepting that he cannot be the [[mother]]'s concept fall into two main groups[[phallus]]) or rejecting it. ((For Lacan, the phallus is not to be equated with the penis, and as a signifier it performs a different function in each of the three [[orders]]: [[The Imaginary|the imaginary]], [[the symbolic]] and the real.))
Firstly==[[Sexual Difference]]== [[Lacan]] argues that both [[boy]]s and [[girl]]s must assume their [[castration]], some feminist writers have argued in the [[sense]] that every [[child]] must [[renounce]] the privileged position Lacan accords possibility of being the [[phallus]] for the [[mother]]; this "[[relationship]] to the phallus means that he merely repeats . . . is established without [[regard]] to the patriarchal gestures anatomical difference of Freud (ethe sexes.g"<ref>{{E}} p. Grosz282</ref> The [[renunciation]] by both [[sexual difference|sexes]] of [[identification]] with the [[phallus|imaginary phallus]] paves the way for a relationship with the [[phallus|symbolic phallus]] which is different for the [[sexual difference|sexes]]; the man has the [[phallus|symbolic phallus]] (or, more precisely, 1990"he is not without having it" [''il n'est pas sans l'avoir'']), but the [[woman]] does not. Other feminists have defended Lacan, arguing This is complicated by the fact that the [[woman|man]] can only lay [[claim]] to the [[phallus|symbolic phallus]] on condition that he has assumed his distinction between own [[castration]] (has given up being the [[phallus |imaginary phallus]]), and by the fact that the [[woman]]'s [[lack]] of the penis provides [[phallus|symbolic phallus]] is also a way kind of accounting for sexual difference which is irreducible to biology (epossession.g. Mitchell and Rose, 1982)<ref>{{S4}} p.153</ref>
The second main objection to Lacan's concept status of the [[phallus is that put forward by Jacques Derrida (Derrida, 1975) and echoed by others. Derrida argues that, despite Lacan's protestations of anti-transcendentalism, the phallus operates as a transcendental element which acts as an ideal guarantee of meaning. How can there be such a thing as a 'privileged signifier', asks Derrida, given that every signifier is defined only by its differences from other signifiers? The phallus, in other words, reintroduces the metaphysics of presence which Derrida denominates as logocentrism, and thus Derrida extensively by Lacan than the ]]: [[Realreal]] phallus, he does not entirely ignore the latter. On the contrary, the [[Realimaginary]] penis has an important role to play in the Oedipus complex of the little boy, for it is precisely via this organ that his sexuality makes itself felt in infantile masturbation; this intrusion of the or [[Realsymbolic]] in the ? [[ImaginaryLacan]] preoedipal triangle is what transforms the triangle from something pleasurable to something which provokes anxiety (S4, 225-6; S4, 341).The question posed in the Oedipus complex is that speaks of where the [[Realphallus|real phallus]] phallus is located; the answer required for the resolution of this complex is that it is located in , the [[Realphallus|imaginary phallus]] father (S4, 281). The and the [[Realphallus|symbolic phallus]] phallus is written H in Lacanian algebra.:
e ==[[The Real]] Phallus== As has already been observed, [[ImaginaryLacan]] usually uses the term "[[phallus When Lacan first introduces |penis]]" to denote the distinction between penis [[real]] [[biology|biological organ]] and phallus, reserves the term "[[phallus refers ]]" to an denote the [[Imaginaryimaginary]] object (S4and [[symbolic]] functions of this [[biology|organ]]. However, he does not always maintain this usage, 31). This is occasionally using the 'image of term "[[phallus|real phallus]]" to denote the penis' (E, 319)[[biology|biological organ]], or using the terms "[[phallus|symbolic phallus]]" and "[[phallus|symbolic penis imagined ]]" as a part-object which may be detached from if they were synonymous.<ref>{{S4}} p. 153</ref> This [[apparent]] confusion and semantic [[slip]]page has led some commentators to argue that the body by castration (E, 315), supposed distinction between the 'phallic image' (E, 320). The [[Imaginaryphallus]] and the [[phallus |penis]] is perceived by the child in the preoedipal phase as the object of the mother's desire, as fact highly unstable and that which she desires beyond the child; the child thus seeks to identify with this object. The Oedipus complex and "the phallus [[Castration Complexconcept]] involve is the renunciation site of this attempt to be the a [[Imaginaryregression]] phallus. The towards the [[Imaginarybiological]] phallus is written 9 organ."<ref>Macey, David. (lower-case phi1988) ''Lacan in Lacanian algebra, which also represents phallic significationContexts''.Castration is written -e (minus lower-case phi)[[London]] and New York: Verso.1988: 191</ref>
While the [[phallus|imaginary phallus]] and the [[phallus|symbolic phallus]] are discussed more extensively by [[Lacan]] than the [[phallus|real phallus]], he does not entirely ignore the latter. On the contrary, the [[phallus|real penis]] has an important role to play in the [[Oedipus complex]] of the little boy, for it is precisely via this [[biology|organ]] that his [[sexuality]] makes itself felt in infantile [[masturbation]]; this intrusion of the [[real]] in the [[imaginary]] [[preoedipal]] [[structure|triangle]] is what transforms the [[structure|triangle]] from something [[pleasure principle|pleasurable]] to something which provokes [[anxiety]].<ref>{{S4}} p. 225-6; {{S4}} p. 341</ref> The question posed in the [[Oedipus complex]] is that of where the [[phallus|real phallus]] is located; the answer required for the [[resolution]] of this [[complex]] is that it is located in the [[real]] [[father]].<ref>{{S4}} p. 281</ref> The [[phallus|real phallus]] is written Π in [[Lacan]]ian [[algebra]].
==The Imaginary Phallus==
When [[Lacan]] first introduces the distinction between [[phallus|penis]] and [[phallus]], the [[phallus]] refers to an [[imaginary]] [[object]].<ref>{{S4}} p. 31</ref> This is the "[[phallus|image of the penis]]",<ref>{{E}} p. 319</ref> the [[phallus|penis]] imagined as a [[part-object]] which may be detached from the [[fragmented body|body]] by [[castration]],<ref>{{E}} p. 315</ref> the "phallic [[image]]".<ref>{{E}} p. 320</ref> The [[phallus|imaginary phallus]] is perceived by the [[child]] in the [[preoedipal phase]] as the [[object]] of the [[mother]]'s [[desire]], as that which she [[desire]]s beyond the [[child]]; the [[child]] thus seeks to [[identify]] with this [[object]]. The [[Oedipus complex]] and the [[Castration complex]] involve the renunciation of this attempt to be the [[phallus|imaginary phallus]]. The [[phallus|imaginary phallus]] is written φ (lower-[[case]] phi) in [[Lacan]]ian [[algebra]], which also represents [[phallus|phallic signification]]. [[Castration]] is written -φ (minus lower-case phi).
e As we saw above, the child slowly comes to realise that it is not identical to, or the sole object of, the mother's [[desire,]] as her desire is directed elsewhere. He/she will therefore attempt to once again become the object of her desire and [[return]] to the initial [[state]] of blissful union. The simple dyadic relationship between the mother and child is thus turned into a [[triangular]] relationship between the child, the mother and the object of her desire. The child attempts to [[seduce]] the mother by becoming that [[object of desire]]. Lacan calls this [[third]] term the [[imaginary phallus]]. [[The Imaginary|The imaginary]] phallus is what the child assumes someone must have in order for them to be the object of the mother's desire and, as her desire is usually directed towards the father, it is assumed that he possesses the phallus. Through trying to satisfy the mother's desire, the child [[identifies]] with the object that it presumes she has lost and attempts to become that object for her. The phallus is imaginary in the sense that it is associated in the child's [[mind]] with an actual object that has been lost and can be recovered. The [[Oedipus Complex|Oedipus complex]], for Lacan, involves the process of giving up the identification with this imaginary phallus, and recognizing that it is a signifier and as such was never there in the first place. What Freud called castration, therefore, is a symbolic process that involves the [[infant]]'s [[recognition]] of themselves as '[[lacking]]' something - the phallus. For Lacan, castration involves the process whereby boys accept that they can [[Symbolicsymbolically]] 'have' the phallus only by accepting that they can never actually have it 'in reality' and girls can accept 'not-having' the phallus once they give up on their 'phallic' identification with their mothers (we will discuss this very complicated [[idea]] in more detail in the chapter on sexual difference). This is the function of [[The Oedipus Complex|the Oedipus complex]] in Lacan.<!-- According to Lacan, the phallus at the outset represents what else the mother desires is in addition to the [[baby]]. Thus, a [[pre-oedipal]] [[Imaginarytriangle]] of mother, phallus, and infant arises. At first the infant tries to be the phallus for the mother until the [[moment]] of a crucial transformation when the child, after identifying the phallus as a static image of [[completeness]] and sufficiency, sees it as representing the mother's desire, and thus her lack. From then on, the phallus takes the [[form]] of something [[missing]] (-') within any imaginary, and hence [[libidinal]], [[frame]] of reference. Thus the phallus which circulates betweencomes to [[signify]] desire, Lacan says. -->
==The Symbolic Phallus==<!-- When the phallus takes on the role of signifier, this implies that [[The Subject|the subject]] grasps it in the [[Other, the]] locus of the set of [[signifiers]] that determines [[The Subject|the subject]]. There it signifies the Other's desire, which is to say that the Other is marked by her own [[incompleteness]]. From then on, the phallus signifies the Other's submission to the laws of symbolic [[exchange]], and such incompleteness frees up in [[The Subject|the subject]] her own jouissance. -->The [[phallus|imaginary phallus]] which circulates between [[mother ]] and [[child ]] serves to institute the first [[dialectic ]] in the child's life, which,although it is an [[imaginary]] [[dialectic]], already paves the way towards the [[symbolic]], since an [[imaginary]] element is circulated in much the same way a [[signifier]] (the [[phallus]] becomes an "[[imaginary]] [[signifier]]"). Thus [[Lacan]]'s formulations on the [[phallus|imaginary phallus]] in the [[seminar]] of 1956-7 are accompanied by statements that the [[phallus]] is also a [[symbolic]] [[object]]<ref>{{S4}} p. 152</ref> and that the [[phallus]] is a [[signifier]].<ref>{{S4}} p. 191</ref> The idea that the [[phallus]] is a [[signifier]] is taken up again and further developed in the 1957-8 [[seminar]] and becomes the [[principle]] element of [[Lacan]]'s theory of the [[phallus]] thereafter; the [[phallus]] is described as "the [[signifier]] of the [[desire]] of the [[Other]]",<ref>{{E}} p. 290</ref> and the [[signifier]] of ''[[jouissance]]''.<ref>{{E}} p. 320</ref>
although it These arguments are stated in their most definitive form in [[Lacan]]'s paper on "[[The Signification of the Phallus]]".<ref>{{L}} "[[The Signification of the Phallus|La signification du phallus]]." ''[[Écrits]]''. [[Paris]]: Seuil, 1966 [1958c]: 685-95 ["[[The Signification of the Phallus|The signification of the phallus]]". Trans. [[Alan Sheridan]] ''[[Écrits: A Selection]]''. London: Tavistock, 1977; New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 1977: 281-91].</ref><blockquote>The phallus is not a fantasy, if by that we mean an [[Imaginary]] dialecticeffect. Nor is it as such an object (part-, [[internal]], [[good]], already paves bad, etc.). It is even less the way towards organ, penis or clitoris, that it [[symbolises]]. . . . The phallus is a signifier. . . . It is thesignifier intended to designate as a [[whole]] the effects of the [[signified]].<ref>{{E}} p. 285</ref></blockquote>
Whereas the [[SymbolicCastration complex]] and the [[Oedipus complex]] revolve around the [[phallus|imaginary phallus]], since an the question of [[sexual difference]] revolves around [[phallus|symbolic phallus]]. The [[phallus]] has no corresponding [[woman|female]] [[Imaginarysignifier]] element ; "the phallus is circulated a symbol to which there is no correspondent, no equivalent. It's a matter of a dissymmetry in much the same way assignifier.'"<ref>{{S3}} p. 176</ref> Both [[sexual difference|male]] and [[sexual difference|female]] [[subject]]s assume their [[sexual difference|sex]] via the [[phallus|symbolic phallus]].
a signifier (Unlike the [[phallus becomes |imaginary phallus]], the [[phallus|symbolic phallus]] cannot be [[negation|negated]], for on the [[symbolic]] plane an '[[Imaginaryabsence]] signifier')is just as much a positive entity as a [[presence]].<ref>{{E}} p. 320</ref> Thus even the [[woman]], who [[lack]]s the [[phallus|symbolic phallus]] in one way, can also be said to possess it, since not having it the [[symbolic]] is itself a form of having.<ref>{{S4}} p. 153</ref> Conversely, the assumption of the [[phallus|symbolic phallus]] by the man is only possible on the basis of the prior assumption of his own [[castration]]. [[Lacan's]] goes on in 1961 to state that the [[phallus|symbolic phallus]] is that which appears in the place of the [[lack]] of the [[signifier]] in the [[Other]].<ref>{{S8}} p. 278-81</ref> It is no ordinary [[signifier]] but the [[real]] [[presence]] of [[desire]] itself.<ref>{{S8}} p. 290</ref> In 1973 he states that the [[phallus|symbolic phallus]] is "the signifier which does not have a signified".<ref>{{S20}} p. 75</ref>
formulations on The [[phallus|symbolic phallus]] is written ф in [[Lacan]]ian [[algebra]]. However, [[Lacan]] warns his students that the complexity of this [[symbol]] might be missed if they simply identify it with the [[phallus|symbolic phallus]].<ref>{{S8}} p. 296</ref> The [[symbol]] is more correctly [[understood]] as designating the "[[Imaginaryphallus|phallic function]] ."<ref>{{S8}} p. 298</ref> In the early 1970s [[Lacan]] incorporates this [[symbol]] of the [[phallus |phallic function]] in his [[sexual difference|formulae of sexuation]]. Using predicate [[logic]] to articulate the seminar problems of 1956-7 are accom-[[sexual difference]], [[Lacan]] devises two [[algebra|formulae]] for the [[sexual difference|masculine position]] and two [[algebra|formulae]] for the [[sexual difference|feminine position]]. All four [[algebra|formulae]] revolve around the [[phallus|phallic function]], which is here equivalent with the function of [[castration]].
panied by statements <!-- desire and signification. It is desire that [[drives]] the process of [[symbolization]]. The phallus is also the ultimate [[Object of Desire|object of desire]] that we have lost and always [[search]] for but never had in the first place. --><!-- To summarize, before we explore this complex idea further, the phallus stands for that moment of rupture when the child is [[forced]] to recognize the desire of the other; of the mother. 'The mother is refused to the child in so far as a [[Symbolicprohibition]] falls on the child's desire to be what the mother desires' (Rose 1996a: 61). The phallus, therefore, always belongs somewhere else; it breaks the mother/child [[dyad]] and initiates the order of symbolic exchange. In this sense the phallus is both imaginary and symbolic. It is imaginary in that it represents the object presumed to satisfy the mother's desire; at the same [[time]], it is symbolic in that it stands in for the recognition that desire cannot be [[satisfied]]. By breaking [[The Imaginary|the imaginary]] couple 'the phallus represents a moment of [[division]] [that “lack-in-being”] which re-enacts the fundamental [[splitting]] of [[The Subject|the subject]] itself' (S4Rose 1996a: 63). As a presence in absence, 152) anda 'seeming' value, the phallus is a fraud . -->
<!-- It is through the [[intervention]] of the [[Name]]-of-the-Father that [[The Imaginary|the imaginary]] [[unity]] between child and mother is broken. The father is assumed to possess something that the child lacks and it is this that the mother desires. It is important here though not to confuse the [[Name-of-the-Father]] with the actual father. The [[Name-of-the-father|Name-of-the-Father]] is a symbolic function that intrudes into the [[illusory]] [[world]] of the child andbreaks [[The Imaginary|the imaginary]] dyad of the mother and child. The child assumes that the father is one that [[satisfies]] the mother's desire and possesses the phallus . In this sense, argues Lacan, the [[Oedipus Complex|Oedipus complex]] involves an element of [[substitution]], that is to say, the substitution of one signifier, the desire of the mother, for [[another]], the [[Name-of-the-father|Name-of-the-Father]]. It is through this initial act of substitution that the process of signification begins and child enters the [[symbolic order]] as a subject of lack. It is also for this [[reason]] that Lacan describes the process of symbolization itself as 'phallic'. It is through the [[Name-of-the-father|Name-of-the-Father]] that the phallus is installed as the central organizing signifier (S4of the [[unconscious]]. The phallus is the 'original' [[lost object]], 191)but only insofar as no one possessed it in the first place. The idea that the phallus , therefore, is a not like any other signifier , it isthe signifier of absence and does not '[[exist]]' in its own [[right]] as a [[thing]], an object or a [[bodily]] organ. Let us look at this more closely. -->
taken <!-- Lacan equates the process of giving up again the imaginary phallus with Freud's account of [[castration anxiety]], but he argues that the process of castration in Freud is more complicated than [[people]] generally [[think]]. Castration involves not just an anxiety [[about]] losing one's penis but simultaneously the recognition of lack or absence . The child is concerned about losing its own penis and further developed simultaneously recognizes that the mother does not have a penis. The idea of the penis, therefore, becomes metonymically linked to the recognition of lack . It is in this sense that Lacan argues that the phallus is not simply the penis; it is the penis plus the recognition of absence or lack . Castration is not the [[fear]] that one has already lost, in the case of girls, or will lose, in the case of boys, one's penis but rather [[The Symbolic|the symbolic]] process of giving up the idea that one can be the phallus for the mother. The intervention of the father distances the child from the mother and also places the phallus forever beyond its reach. If [[The Symbolic|the symbolic]] father is seen to possess the phallus, then the child can only become a subject itself in [[The Symbolic|the 1957symbolic]] order by renouncing the imaginary phallus. The problem for Lacan is how does one symbolically represent 'lack' -8 something that by definition is not there? His solution is the idea of the '[[veil]]'. The presence of the veil suggests that there is an object behind it, which the veil covers over, although this is only a presumption on the part of [[The Subject|the subject]]. In this way the veil enables the perpetuation of the idea that the object [[exists]]. Thus, both boys and girls can have a relationship to the phallus on the basis that it always remains veiled and out of reach. The phallus provides the vital link between --><!-- ==Phallic Jouissance== In his seminar on [[female]] sexuality (1998), Lacan further specified what he meant by the term "[[phallic jouissance]]." He used the phallic signifier (Φ) in [[writing]] his "[[formulas]] of [[sexuation]]," which posit that every human being has to be on one side or the other of the sexual [[divide]]. A woman always has something of the phallus (she is not entirely [[castrated]]), and becomes theman is only supposed to "have" the phallus when he fantasizes his castration. In Lacan's symbolic notation, the phallus takes on the [[formal]] role of a [[supplement]], which adds to the [[Castration Complex|castration complex]] the fact that "there is no sexual relation," as Lacan said, referring to the [[impossibility]] of writing an equation of the relationship between the sexes. --><!-- ===Criticisms of Lacan===Of all [[Lacan]]'s [[ideas]], his concept of the [[phallus]] is perhaps the one which has given rise to most controversy. Objections to [[Lacan]]'s concept fall into two main groups.
principle element Firstly, some [[feminist]] writers have argued that the privileged position [[Lacan]] accords to the [[phallus]] means that he merely repeats the patriarchal gestures of [[Freud]] (e.g. Grosz, 1990). Other feminists have defended [[Lacan's theory of ]], arguing that his distinction between the [[phallus thereafter; ]] and the [[phallus |penis]] provides a way of accounting for [[sexual difference]] which isirreducible to [[biology]] (e.g. Mitchell and Rose, 1982).
described as The second main objection to [[Lacan]]'the signifier s concept of the desire of the Other[[phallus]] is that put forward by [[Jacques Derrida]].<ref>Derrida, Jacques. (1975) "Le facteur de la vérité." ''The Post Card: From [[Socrates]] to Freud and Beyond'' (E. Trans. Alan Bass, 290)Chicago and London: [[University]] of Chicago Press, 1987 [1975]: 413-96</ref> and echoed by [[others]]. [[Derrida]] argues that, despite [[Lacan]]'s protestations of anti-transcendentalism, the [[phallus]] operates as a [[transcendental]] element which [[acts]] as an [[ideal]] [[guarantee]] of [[meaning]]. How can there be such a thing as a "privileged signifier", asks [[Derrida]], given that every [[signifier]] is defined only by its differences from other [[signifier]]s? The [[phallus]], in other [[words]], reintroduces the [[metaphysics]] of [[presence]] which [[Derrida]] denominates as [[logocentrism]], and thus [[Derrida]] concludes that, by articulating this with [[phallocentrism]], [[Lacan]] has created a [[phallocentrism|phallogocentric system of thought]].-->
of jouissance (E, 320).=See Also={{See}}* [[Algebra]]* [[Biology]]||* [[Castration complex]]* [[Desire]]||* [[Development]]* [[Father]]||* [[Imaginary]]* [[Lack]]||* [[Mother]]* [[Oedipus complex]]||* [[Part-object]]* [[Preoedipal]]||* [[Sexual difference]]* [[Symbolic]]{{Also}}
These arguments are stated in their most definitive form in =External Links=* Hook, Derek (2006). [http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/960/1/Lacanthemeaning.pdf Lacan's paper on, the meaning of the phallus and the ‘sexed’ subject] [online]. London: LSE Research Online. Available at: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/960
'The signification of the phallus' (Lacan, 1958c):
The phallus is not a fantasy, if by that we mean an [[Imaginary]] effect. Nor is it=References=<div style="font-size:11px" class="references-small"><references/></div>
as such an object (part-, internal, good, bad, etc.). It is even less the organ, penis or clitoris, that it symbolises. . . . The phallus is a signifier. . . . It is the signifier intended to designate as a whole the effects of the signified.
(E, 285)[[Category:Psychoanalysis]][[Category:Jacques Lacan]] Whereas the [[Castration ComplexCategory:Dictionary]] and the Oedipus complex revolve around the[[Category:Sexuality]] [[Category:Imaginary]] phallus, the question of sexual difference revolves around the[[Category:Symbolic]][[Category:Concepts]] concludes that, by articulating this with phallocentrism, Lacan has created a phallogocentric system of thought. == [[Kid A In Alphabet LandCategory:Terms]] == [[ImageCategory:Kida_p.gif |right|frameReal]]'''Kid A In Alphabet Land Pacifies Another Pernicious Persona - The Phony Phallus!''' You're An Abominable Erection! You Demand To Be Raised To The Level Of Signifier, But You Need To Be Veiled, To Hide What You Haven't Got! Wouldn't You Like It Both Ways! But By Making The Woman Rigid, You Make Her Frigid! Humph! You're Only So Much Meat!
