Changes

"[[castration complex]]" ([[Fr]]. ''[[complexe de castration]]'')

[[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>{{F}} "On the Sexual Theories of Children. 1908. SE IX. p.207</ref>

The [[boy]] fears that his own [[penis]] will be cut off by the [[father]] ([[castration]] [[anxiety]]), while the [[girl]] sees herself as already castrated (by the [[mother]]) and attempts to deny this or to compensate for it by seeking a [[child]] as a substitute for the [[penis]] ([[penis envy]]).

The castration complex affects both sexes because its appearance is closely linked with the [[phallic phase]], a moment of psychosexual [[development]] when the child, whether boy or girl, knows only one genital organ - the male one.

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>

Freud argued that the castration complex is closely linked to the [[Oedipus Complex]], but that its role in the Oedipus complex is different for the boy and the girl.

Because of this difference, in the case of the girl the Oedipus complex has no definitive terminal crisis comparable to the boy's.<ref>{{F}} "The Dissolution of the Oedipus Complex." 1924. SE XIX p.173</ref>

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).