==Dictionary==
The term "phallus" designates the representation of an erect penis, which plays a key role both intra- and inter-subjectively. Freud barely distinguished between the fantasized phallus and the anatomical penis. He called the period between three and five years of age the "phallic stage." At this stage, infants of both sexes are dominated by the question of who possesses a penis and the related issue of its masturbatory jouissance (gratification), which is clitoral in the case of girls. Up to this point, the mother is imagined as having a penis, and the discovery that she lacks a penis, after an initial denial, precipitates the castration complex.
Jacques Lacan chose to use the term "phallus" for the imaginary and symbolic representation of the penis in order to better distinguish the role of the penis in the fantasy life of both sexes from its anatomical role. Freud's famous "symbolic equation" of breast, feces, penis, and baby (1916-1917a [1915-1917], 1918b, 1924d) already implied this distinction between the real penis and its phallic representations.
According to Lacan, the phallus at the outset represents what else the mother desires is in addition to the baby. Thus, a pre-oedipal triangle of mother, phallus, and infant arises. At first the infant tries to <i>be</i> the phallus for the mother until the moment of a crucial transformation when the child, after identifying the phallus as a static image of completeness and sufficiency, sees it as representing the mother's desire, and thus her lack. From then on, the phallus takes the form of something missing (-') within any imaginary, and hence libidinal, frame of reference. Thus the phallus comes to signify desire, Lacan says.
The intermittence of its erection, its ability to fade (compare Ernest Jones's concept of aphanisis), and even the fact that half of all humans do not have it have made the erect penis eminently suited to symbolize the crucial issues of being (subject) and having (object) in both sexes. The penis constitutes the key element in the asymmetrical division that, according to Roman Jakobson, characterizes any symbolic system.
When the phallus takes on the role of signifier, this implies that the subject grasps it in the Other, the locus of the set of signifiers that determines the subject. There it signifies the Other's desire, which is to say that the Other is marked by her own incompleteness. From then on, the phallus signifies the Other's submission to the laws of symbolic exchange, and such incompleteness frees up in the subject her own jouissance.
In his seminar on female sexuality (1998), Lacan further specified what he meant by the term "phallic jouissance." He used the phallic signifier (Φ) in writing his "formulas of sexuation," which posit that every human being has to be on one side or the other of the sexual divide. A woman always has something of the phallus (she is not entirely castrated), and the man is only supposed to "have" the phallus when he fantasizes his castration. In Lacan's symbolic notation, the phallus takes on the formal role of a supplement, which adds to the castration complex the fact that "there is no sexual relation," as Lacan said, referring to the impossibility of writing an equation of the relationship between the sexes.
==Phallus==
Freud does use the adjective 'phallic' more frequently, such as in the expression 'the phallic phase', but again this implies no rigorous distinction between the terms 'phallus' and 'penis', since the phallic phase denotes a stage in development in which the child (boy or girl) knows only one genital organ - the penis.
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Lacan generally prefers to use the term 'phallus' rather than 'penis' in order to emphasise the fact that what concerns psychoanalytic theory is not the male genital organ in its biological reality but the role that this organ plays in fantasy.
Hence Lacan usually reserves the term 'penis' for the biological organ, and the term 'phallus' for the [[Imaginary]] and [[Symbolic]] functions of this organ.
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While this terminological distinction is not found in Freud's work, it responds to the logic implicit in Freud's formulations on the penis.
It can be argued, then, that Lacan's terminological innovation simply clarifies certain distinctions that were already implicit in Freud's work.
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Although not prominent in Lacan's work before the mid-1950s, the term 'phallus' occupies an ever more important place in his discourse thereafter.
The phallus plays a central role in both the [[Oedipus Complex]] and in the theory of [[sexual difference]].
==The phallus and the Oedipus complex==
==The phallus and sexual difference==
Lacan argues that both boys and girls must assume their castration, in the sense that every child must renounce the possibility of being the phallus for the mother; this 'relationship to the phallus . . . is established without regard to the anatomical difference of the sexes'.<ref>{{E, }} 282</ref>
The renunciation by both sexes of identification with the [[imaginary]] phallus paves the way for a relationship with the [[symbolic]] phallus which is different for the sexes; the man has the [[symbolic]] phallus (or, more precisely, 'he is not without having it' [''il n'est pas sans l'avoir'']), but the [[Woman]] does not.
This is complicated by the fact that the man can only lay claim to the [[symbolic]] phallus on condition that he has assumed his own castration (has given up being the [[imaginary]] phallus), and by the fact that the [[woman]]'s lack of the [[Symbolic]] phallus is also a kind of possession.<ref>{{S4, }} 153</ref> --
The status of the phallus: [[Real]], [[Imaginary]] or [[Symbolic]]?
Lacan speaks of the [[real]] phallus, the [[imaginary]] phallus and the [[symbolic]] phallus:
==The [[real]] phallus==
As has already been observed, Lacan usually uses the term 'penis' to denote the [[real]] biological organ and reserves the term 'phallus' to denote the [[imaginary]] and [[symbolic]] functions of this organ.
However, he does not always maintain this usage, occasionally using the term '[[real]] phallus' to denote the biological organ, or using the terms '[[symbolic]] phallus' and '[[symbolic]] penis' as if they were synonymous.<ref>S4, 153</ref>
This apparent confusion and semantic slippage ==The real phallus== As has led some commentators already been observed, Lacan usually uses the term 'penis' to argue that denote the supposed distinction between the phallus [[real]] biological organ and reserves the penis is in fact highly unstable and that term 'the phallus concept is ' to denote the site [[imaginary]] and [[symbolic]] functions of a regression towards the biological this organ'.<ref>Macey, 1988: 191</ref>
While However, he does not always maintain this usage, occasionally using the term '[[imaginaryreal]] phallus and ' to denote the biological organ, or using the terms '[[symbolic]] phallus are discussed more ' and '[[symbolic]] phalluspenis' as if they were synonymous.<ref>{{S4}} p. 153</ref>
The This apparent confusion and semantic slippage has led some commentators to argue that the supposed distinction between the phallus has no corresponding female signifier; and the penis is in fact highly unstable and that 'the phallus concept is a symbol to which there is no correspondent, no equivalent. It's a matter the site of a dissymmetry in regression towards the signifierbiological organ'.'<ref>S3Macey, 1761988: p.191</ref>
Both male and female subjects assume their sex via the [[Symbolic]] phallus.---
Unlike While the [[Imaginaryimaginary]] phallus, and the [[Symbolicsymbolic]] phallus cannot be negated, for on are discussed more extensively by Lacan than the [[Symbolicreal]] plane an absence is just as much a positive entity as a presencephallus, he does not entirely ignore the latter.<ref>see E, 320</ref>
Thus even On the contrary, the [[Womanreal]]penis has an important role to play in the Oedipus complex of the little boy, who lacks for it is precisely via this organ that his sexuality makes itself felt in infantile masturbation; this intrusion of the [[SymbolicReal]] phallus in one way, can also be said to possess it, since not having it the [[SymbolicImaginary]] preoedipal triangle is itself a form of havingwhat transforms the triangle from something pleasurable to something which provokes anxiety.<ref>S4, 153225-6; S4, 341</ref>
Conversely, The question posed in the assumption Oedipus complex is that of where the [[Symbolicreal]] phallus by is located; the man is only possible on answer required for the basis resolution of this complex is that it is located in the prior assumption of his own castration[[real]] father.<ref>S4, 281</ref>
The [[real]] phallus is written H in Lacanian algebra.
==The [[Imaginary]] phallus==
When Lacan first introduces the distinction between penis and phallus, the phallus refers to an [[Imaginary]] object.<ref>S4, 31</ref>
This is the 'image of the penis',<ref>E, 319</ref> the penis imagined as a part-object which may be detached from the body by castration,<ref>E, 315</ref> the 'phallic image'.<ref>E, 320</ref>
Lacan goes on in 1961 to state that the The [[SymbolicImaginary]] phallus is that which appears perceived by the child in the place preoedipal phase as the object of the lack of mother's desire, as that which she desires beyond the signifier in child; the Otherchild thus seeks to identify with this object.<ref>S8, 278-8 1</ref>
It is no ordinary signifier but The Oedipus complex and the [[RealCastration Complex]] presence involve the renunciation of desire itselfthis attempt to be the [[Imaginary]] phallus.<ref>S8, 290</ref>
In 1973 he states that the The [[SymbolicImaginary]] phallus is 'the signifier written 9 (lower-case phi) in Lacanian algebra, which does not have a signified'also represents phallic signification.<ref>S20, 75</ref>
Castration is written -e (minus lower-case phi).
The [[Symbolic]] phallus is written <fi in Lacanian algebra.
However, Lacan warns his students that the complexity of this symbol might be missed if they simply identify it with the [[Symbolic]] phallus.<ref>S8, 296</ref>
==The symbol is more correctly understood as designating 'the phallic function'.<ref>S8, 298</ref> [[Symbolic]] phallus==
In The [[Imaginary]] phallus which circulates between mother and child serves to institute the early 1970s Lacan incorporates this symbol of first dialectic in the phallic function child's life, which, although it is an [[Imaginary]] dialectic, already paves the way towards the [[Symbolic]], since an [[Imaginary]] element is circulated in his formulae of sexuationmuch the same way a signifier (the phallus becomes an '[[Imaginary]] signifier').
Using predicate logic to articulate Thus Lacan's formulations on the problems [[Imaginary]] phallus in the seminar of sexual difference1956-7 are accompanied by statements that the phallus is also a [[Symbolic]] object<ref>S4, Lacan devises two formulae for the masculine position 152</ref> and two formulae for that the feminine positionphallus is a signifier. <ref>S4, 191</ref>
All four formulae revolve around The idea that the phallic functionphallus is a signifier is taken up again and further developed in the 1957-8 seminar and becomes the principle element of Lacan's theory of the phallus thereafter; the phallus is described as 'the signifier of the desire of the Other',<ref>E, which is here equivalent with 290</ref> and the function signifier of castrationjouissance.<ref>E, 320</ref>
==Criticisms of Lacan ==
Of all Lacan's ideas, his concept of the phallus is perhaps the one which has given rise to most controversy.
Objections to Lacan's concept fall into two main groups.--
These arguments are stated in their most definitive form in Lacan's paper on 'The signification of the phallus'.<ref>Lacan, 1958c</ref>
FirstlyThe phallus is not a fantasy, some feminist writers have argued if by that we mean an [[Imaginary]] effect. Nor is it as such an object (part-, internal, good, bad, etc.). It is even less the privileged position Lacan accords organ, penis or clitoris, that it symbolises. . . . The phallus is a signifier. . . . It is the signifier intended to designate as a whole the phallus means that he merely repeats effects of the patriarchal gestures of Freud (esignified.g. Grosz<ref>E, 1990). 285</ref>
Other feminists have defended Lacan, arguing that his distinction between Whereas the [[Castration Complex]] and the Oedipus complex revolve around the [[Imaginary]] phallus and , the penis provides a way question of accounting for sexual difference which is irreducible to biology (e.g. Mitchell and Rose, 1982)revolves around [[symbolic]] phallus.
The phallus has no corresponding female signifier; 'the phallus is a symbol to which there is no correspondent, no equivalent. It's a matter of a dissymmetry in the signifier.'<ref>{{S3}} p.176</ref>
Both male and female subjects assume their sex via the [[Symbolic]] phallus.
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The second main objection to Lacan's concept of Unlike the [[Imaginary]] phallus , the [[Symbolic]] phallus cannot be negated, for on the [[Symbolic]] plane an absence is that put forward by Jacques Derrida (Derridajust as much a positive entity as a presence.<ref>see E, 1975) and echoed by others. 320</ref>
Derrida argues thatThus even the [[Woman]], who lacks the [[Symbolic]] phallus in one way, despite Lacan's protestations of anti-transcendentalismcan also be said to possess it, since not having it the phallus operates as [[Symbolic]] is itself a transcendental element which acts as an ideal guarantee form of meaninghaving. <ref>S4, 153</ref>
How can there be such a thing as a 'privileged signifier'Conversely, asks Derrida, given that every signifier the assumption of the [[Symbolic]] phallus by the man is defined only by its differences from other signifiers? possible on the basis of the prior assumption of his own castration.
The phallus, in other words, reintroduces the metaphysics of presence which Derrida denominates as logocentrism, and thus Derrida extensively by Lacan than the [[real]] phallus, he does not entirely ignore the latter.
On the contrary, Lacan goes on in 1961 to state that the [[realSymbolic]] penis has an important role to play phallus is that which appears in the Oedipus complex place of the little boy, for it is precisely via this organ that his sexuality makes itself felt in infantile masturbation; this intrusion lack of the [[Real]] signifier in the [[Imaginary]] preoedipal triangle is what transforms the triangle from something pleasurable to something which provokes anxietyOther.<ref>S4S8, 225278-6; S4, 3418 1</ref>
The question posed in the Oedipus complex It is that of where no ordinary signifier but the [[realReal]] phallus is located; the answer required for the resolution presence of this complex is that it is located in the [[real]] fatherdesire itself.<ref>S4S8, 281290</ref>
The In 1973 he states that the [[realSymbolic]] phallus is written H in Lacanian algebra'the signifier which does not have a signified'.<ref>S20, 75</ref>
==The [[Imaginary]] phallus==
When Lacan first introduces the distinction between penis and phallus, the phallus refers to an [[Imaginary]] object.<ref>S4, 31</ref>
This is the 'image of the penis',<ref>E, 319</ref> the penis imagined as a part-object which may be detached from the body by castration,<ref>E, 315</ref> the 'phallic image'.<ref>E, 320</ref> --
The [[Imaginary]] phallus is perceived by the child in the preoedipal phase as the object of the mother's desire, as that which she desires beyond the child; the child thus seeks to identify with this object.
The Oedipus complex and the [[Castration Complex]] involve the renunciation of this attempt to be the [[Imaginary]] phallus.
The [[ImaginarySymbolic]] phallus is written 9 (lower-case phi) <fi in Lacanian algebra, which also represents phallic signification.
However, Lacan warns his students that the complexity of this symbol might be missed if they simply identify it with the [[Symbolic]] phallus.<ref>S8, 296</ref>
Castration The symbol is written -e (minus lower-case phi)more correctly understood as designating 'the phallic function'.<ref>S8, 298</ref>
In the early 1970s Lacan incorporates this symbol of the phallic function in his formulae of sexuation.
Using predicate logic to articulate the problems of sexual difference, Lacan devises two formulae for the masculine position and two formulae for the feminine position.
==The [[Symbolic]] phallus== The [[Imaginary]] phallus which circulates between mother and child serves to institute All four formulae revolve around the first dialectic in the child's lifephallic function, which, although it is an [[Imaginary]] dialectic, already paves the way towards the [[Symbolic]], since an [[Imaginary]] element is circulated in much the same way a signifier (the phallus becomes an '[[Imaginary]] signifier'). Thus Lacan's formulations on the [[Imaginary]] phallus in the seminar of 1956-7 are accompanied by statements that the phallus is also a [[Symbolic]] object<ref>S4, 152</ref> and that the phallus is a signifier.<ref>S4, 191</ref> The idea that the phallus is a signifier is taken up again and further developed in the 1957-8 seminar and becomes the principle element of Lacan's theory of the phallus thereafter; the phallus is described as 'the signifier of the desire of the Other',<ref>E, 290</ref> and the signifier of jouissance.<ref>E, 320</ref> These arguments are stated in their most definitive form in Lacan's paper on 'The signification of the phallus'.<ref>Lacan, 1958c</ref> The phallus is not a fantasy, if by that we mean an [[Imaginary]] effect. Nor is it as such an object (part-, internal, good, bad, etc.). It is even less the organ, penis or clitoris, that it symbolises. . . . The phallus is a signifier. . . . It is the signifier intended to designate as a whole the effects of the signified.<ref>E, 285</ref> Whereas the [[Castration Complex]] and the Oedipus complex revolve around the [[Imaginary]] phallus, the question of sexual difference revolves around the concludes that, by articulating this here equivalent with phallocentrism, Lacan has created a phallogocentric system of thought. == [[Kid A In Alphabet Land]] == [[Image:Kida_p.gif |right|frame]]'''Kid A In Alphabet Land Pacifies Another Pernicious Persona - The Phony Phallus!''' You're An Abominable Erection! You Demand To Be Raised To The Level Of Signifier, But You Need To Be Veiled, To Hide What You Haven't Got! Wouldn't You Like It Both Ways! But By Making The Woman Rigid, You Make Her Frigid! Humph! You're Only So Much Meat! ==See Also==* [[Castration complex]]* [[Eros]]* [[Female sexuality]]* [[Feminism]]* [[Identification]]* [[Gaze]]* [[Name of the Father]]* [[Optical model]]* [[Perversion]]* [[Psychosis]]* [[Sexual differences]]* [[Sexuation]]* [[Symbolic]]* [[Symptom]]/[[sinthome]] ==References==<references/># Freud, Sigmund. (1916-1917a [1915-1917]). Introductory lectures on psycho-analysis. SE, 15-16.# ——. (1918b [1914]). From the history of an infantile neurosis. SE, 17: 1-122.# ——. (1924d). The dissolution of the Oedipus complex. SE, 19: 171-179.# Lacan, Jacques. (1998). On feminine sexuality: The limits of love and knowledge (Bruce Fink, Trans.). New York: W. W. Norton. (Original work published 1972-1973.)# ——. (2002). The signification function of the phallus. In his Écrits: A selection (Bruce Fink, Trans.). New York: W. W. Norton. (Original work published 1958castration.) [[Category:New]] [[Category:Sexuality]]
