Castration
Castration is referred to throughout the work of Freud and Lacan. Although it undergoes certain referential changes, castration retains its place as a necessary element in the structuring of sexuality for the speaking being.
Contents
Sigmund Freud
The notion of castration in Freud's work
In all of his discussions on sexuality, Freud emphasizes castration. What Freud learned from his clinical practice is that sexuality always involves a dimension of the impossibility of reaching total satisfaction. In order to achieve some satisfaction it is necessary to renounce total satisfaction and this renunciation is one of the references to castration, where castration is a condition for satisfaction.
Definition
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 instinctual renunciation is necessary for all cultural achievement, associating it with the Oedipus complex and its resolution.
