24,656
edits
Changes
→The Desire of the Mother=
In this game of "to be or not to be the phallus," the child is completely at the mercy of the capricious [[desire]] of the [[mother]], [[helplessness|helpless]] in the face of her omnipotence.<ref>{{S4}} p.69, 187</ref>
However, this sense o fpowerlessness may not give rise to much [[anxiety]] at first; for a time, the [[child]] experiencces his attempts at being the [[phallus]] as arelaively a relatively satisfying game of seduction.
It is only when the [[child]]'s sexual drives begin to stire (e.g. in infantile masturbation), and na element of the [[real]] is thus introduced into the[[imagianryimaginary]] game, tha tthe that the omnipotence of the [[mother]] begins to provoke greater [[anxiety]] in the [[chldchild]].
This [[anxiety]] is manifested in iamges of being devoured by the [[mother]], and is only resolved by the intervention of the [[real]] [[father]] who castrates the [[child]] in the third time of the [[Oedipus complex]].
