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====Infantile Theory====
[[Freud]] first described the [[castration complex]] in 1908, arguing that the [[child]], on discovering the anatomical difference between the sexes (the [[presence]] or [[absence]] of the [[penis]]), makes the assumption that this difference is due to the [[female]]'s [[penis]] having been cut off.<ref>Freud, 1908c{{F}} "On the Sexual Theories of Children. 1908. SE IX. p.207</ref>
The [[castration complex]] is thus the moment when one infantile theory (everyone has a [[penis]]) is replaced by a new one ([[female]]s have been castrated).
This phase is also known as the infantile genital organisation because it is the first moment when the partial drives are unified under the primacy of the genital organs.
It thus anticipates the genital organisation proper which arises at puberty, when the subject is aware of both the male and the female sexual organs.<ref>{{F}} "The Infantile Genital Organization." 1923. SE XIX. p.141</ref>
====Oedipus Complex====
In the case of the girl, the castration complex is the point of entry into the Oedipus complex; it is her resentment of the mother, whom she blames for depriving her of the penis, that causes her to redirect her [[libido|libidinal]] desires away from the mother and onto the father.
Because of this difference, in the case of the girl the Oedipus complex has no definitive terminal crisis comparable to the boy's.<ref>Freud, 1924d{{F}} "The Dissolution of the Oedipus Complex." 1924. SE XIX p.173</ref>
====Conclusion====
Freud came to see the castration complex as a universal phenomenon, one which is rooted in a basic 'rejection of femininity' (Ablehnung der Weiblich-keit).
It is encountered in every subject, and represents the ultimate limit beyond which psychoanalytic treatment cannot go.<ref>Freud, 1937c{{F}} "Analysis Terminable and Interminable." 1937. SE XXIII. p.211</ref>
