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→Sigmund Freud
[[Castration]] refers to the movement of [[separation]] installed by the [[Oedipal]] [[law]] between [[mother]] and [[infant]] and is thus a requirement of [[culture]]; it is the positive side of the [[prohibition]] of [[incest]]. [[Freud]] emphasizes that [[instinct]]ual [[renunciation]] is necessary for all [[cultural]] [[achievement]], associating it with the [[Oedipus]] [[complex]] and its [[resolution]].
[[Freud]] first used the term [[castration complex]] in 1908 in reference to an infantile theory of [[sexuality]] adopted by [[children]] to explain the [[difference between the sexes]].<ref>[[Sigmund, Freud]]. 1951.</ref> [[Freud]] emphasizes the [[phallocentrism]] of [[children]], who, assuming the [[possession]] of a [[penis]] in all [[living]] [[creatures]], attribute the [[lack]] of it to a [[castration]]. This very attribution of a [[lack]] is the result of a [[fantasy]] of a [[castration]] in relation to which the [[boy]] will experience [[castration anxiety]] and which will contribute to an experience of disillusionment in the [[girl]].
Freud's argument in the case of the boy is that his wish to take his mother as his sexual partner is given up due to the threat from the father that he will lose his penis - that instrument of erotic sensations — if he carries out his wishes. The narcissistic investment in the penis leads the boy to a renunciation of the mother as his sexual partner, and to wait for a time when he can take another woman as his partner.
