Castrated subject
The Castrated Subject is a concept primarily articulated within Lacanian psychoanalysis, designating the subject as constituted through a fundamental lack introduced by the symbolic order. Rather than referring to a literal or anatomical castration, this term describes the structural position of the subject once it has entered the realm of language, law, and desire.
Structural Castration in Lacan
Jacques Lacan reconceptualized Freud's notion of castration as a symbolic operation that makes the subject possible. Entry into the Symbolic Order—the domain of language and social law—requires a sacrifice: the renunciation of jouissance (unmediated enjoyment) and the acceptance of the limitations imposed by the signifier. This structural loss is what Lacan calls symbolic castration.
The subject that emerges through this process is not a coherent or autonomous ego, but a divided being: the barred subject (represented as $S or $⧸S in Lacan’s algebra). The bar signifies the subject's division between conscious and unconscious processes, between signifier and signified, and ultimately between desire and speech. This division is the effect of castration.
The castrated subject is therefore not deficient in a pathological sense, but is rather the normative effect of becoming a speaking being. In Lacanian terms, one must be castrated in order to desire, to speak, and to be a subject within the social bond.
Castration and the Phallus
Lacan distinguishes the phallus from the penis, defining it as the signifier of lack and the privileged signifier of desire in the symbolic order. The subject does not possess the phallus but is structured by its absence. In this sense, the castrated subject is marked by its relation to the phallus as something that is never fully attained or possessed.
This relation to the phallus determines the subject’s position within sexual difference. Neither the masculine nor the feminine subject possesses the phallus: the masculine subject is positioned as having lost it, while the feminine subject is positioned as not being it. Both are structured around the same symbolic lack, and thus both are castrated in different modalities.
The Name-of-the-Father and Subject Formation
Castration is also linked to the function of the Name-of-the-Father, the symbolic father who enforces the prohibition of incest and introduces the child into the symbolic law. The Name-of-the-Father is the signifier that metaphorizes the desire of the mother, breaking the dyadic imaginary bond between mother and child and instituting the subject as separate and desiring.
Through this paternal metaphor, the subject assumes a position within the symbolic chain of signifiers, and it is through this entry that the subject becomes castrated—no longer the object of the mother’s unmediated desire, but a desiring subject marked by lack.
Clinical Implications
The failure or foreclosure of symbolic castration is central to Lacan’s theory of psychosis. In psychotic structures, the Name-of-the-Father is not inscribed in the symbolic order, resulting in a subject who has not undergone symbolic castration and thus cannot fully assume a place in the symbolic order. This leads to phenomena such as hallucinations, delusions, and disturbances in the relation to language.
In neurosis and perversion, the subject is castrated but navigates this lack in different ways: the neurotic through repression and fantasy, the pervert through disavowal and fetishization.
Cultural and Theoretical Relevance
The concept of the castrated subject has broad implications for cultural theory, feminism, and philosophy. It challenges notions of subjectivity as self-contained or autonomous, emphasizing instead the constitutive role of loss, language, and desire. Feminist theorists have both critiqued and adapted the concept to analyze gender, identity, and power in post-structuralist frameworks.
See Also
References
- Lacan, J. (1958). The Signification of the Phallus. In: Écrits.
- Lacan, J. (1956–57). The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book IV: The Object Relation.
- Lacan, J. (1959–60). The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book VII: The Ethics of Psychoanalysis.
- Evans, D. (1996). An Introductory Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis.
- Žižek, S. (1992). Enjoy Your Symptom!