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In <i>The Question of Lay [[Analysis]]</i> (1926e), [[Freud ]] wrote, "We [[know ]] less [[about ]] the [[sexual ]] [[life ]] of little girls than of boys. But we [[need ]] not feel ashamed of this [[distinction]]; after all, the [[sexual life ]] of [[adult ]] [[women ]] is a 'dark continent' for [[psychology]]" (p. 212). The evocative phrase <i>dark continent</i> connotes a geographic [[space ]] that is murky and deep, one that defies [[understanding]]. Freud borrowed the expression from the African explorer John Rowlands Stanley's description of the exploration of a dark forest—virgin, hostile, impenetrable. By using this phrase and comparing the adult [[woman]]'s sexual life to an unknown continent, Freud indicates both his embarrassment as well as his explorer's curiosity. He also emphasizes the obscure and incomplete [[nature ]] of the [[clinical ]] [[material ]] on the sexual life of girls and women for the [[psychoanalyst]]. His [[metaphor ]] for the [[female ]] sex turns it into an unrepresentable enigma, expressing the [[castration ]] [[anxiety ]] of the man who approaches it. For although he insists on the central [[idea ]] constituting his [[theory ]] of female sexuality—namely, the [[primitive ]] masculinity of the little [[girl]], who is a little man before she changes [[objects ]] and wishes to acquire a [[child ]] from her father—Freud does have doubts about his theory.If we consider his statements about female [[sexuality]], a theory that was never really explained in a comprehensive manner, we see that Freud is close to [[being ]] his most severe critic. In 1923, the year his most specific statements about [[female sexuality ]] appeared, he presented, in "[[Infantile ]] [[Genital ]] Organization," his [[thesis ]] of the primacy of the [[phallus]]: "For both [[sexes]], only one genital, namely the [[male ]] one comes into account. What is [[present]], therefore, is not a primacy of the genitals, but a primacy of the <i>phallus</i>." He immediately adds, "Unfortunately we can describe this [[state ]] of things only as it affects the male child; the corresponding [[processes ]] in the little girl are not known to us" (1923e, p. 142).However, Freud himself attempts to illuminate the darkness of the continent. For he discovers that for the little girl, the [[mother]], who first provides care for the child, is the [[object ]] of an especially intense and long-lasting [[cathexis]]. This archaic bond between mother and daughter, which [[psychoanalytic ]] theory would later describe as one of primary homosexuality, is compared by Freud to Minoan-Mycenaean [[civilization]], which had been hidden for so long by Athenian civilization. Freud also insists on the function of the phallus for the woman. The phallus—not to be confused with the penis—is [[understood ]] to [[represent ]] the [[paternal function ]] and the capacity for [[symbolization ]] in all [[human ]] beings. These [[ideas ]] were further developed by Jacques [[Lacan ]] and his [[school]].In Freud's [[writing ]] on femininity, a rigorous, sometimes even dogmatic, conceptualization always shares space with a [[sense ]] of perplexity. But the invisibility of the female sex, its [[internal ]] nature, a [[multiplicity ]] of theories have been offered. Research by Freud's disciples, such as Ernest [[Jones ]] and Karen Horney, exposed new fields of exploration that are rich and heteroclite. Female [[psychoanalysts ]] deepened the investigation of the female [[Oedipus ]] and the young girl's [[relationship ]] to the [[phallic ]] [[phase ]] (Janine Chasseguet-Smirgel). Following Lacan, important [[work ]] was done (Michèle Montrelay) on the "[[other]]" [[jouissance]], which functions centrifugally in women, unlike the centripetal jouissance found in men. Influenced by the [[philosopher ]] Jacques [[Derrida]], there has also been important work on the [[feminine ]] and the unrepresentable (Luce [[Irigaray]]). Finally, analysis of the female Oedipus resumed and was seen to consist of two phases ([[maternal ]] object and paternal object, sensoriality and [[language]]) that constitute the basis of female bisexuality ([[Julia Kristeva]]).

# [[Freud, Sigmund]]. (1923e). The infantile genital organization (an interpolation into the theory of sexuality). SE, 19: 141-145.# ——. (1926e). The question of [[lay analysis]]. SE, 20: 183-250.# Irigaray, Luce. (1985). Speculum of the other woman (G. C. Gill, Trans.). Ithaca, NY: Cornell [[University ]] Press. (Original work published 1974)# Kristeva, Julia. (2000). The sense and non-sense of [[revolt ]] (J. Herman, Trans.). New York: Columbia University Press. (Original work published 1996)