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[[Freud]]'s [[Works of Sigmund Freud|work]] abounds in references to the [[phallus|penis]]. [[Freud]] argues that children of both [[sexual difference|sexes]] set great value on the [[phallus|penis]], and that their discovery that some [[human]] [[being]]s do not possess a [[phallus|penis]] leads to important psychical consequences. However, the term "[[phallus]]" rarely appears in [[Freud]]'s [[Works of Sigmund Freud|work]], and when it does it is used as a synonym of "[[phallus|penis]]".

[[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 "[[phallus|penis]]", since the [[phallic phase]] denotes a stage in [[development]] in which the [[child]] ([[boy]] or [[girl]]) knows only one [[biology|genital organ]] - the [[phallus|penis]].

[[Lacan]] generally prefers to use the term "[[phallus]]" rather than "[[phallus|penis]]" in order to emphasize the fact that what concerns [[psychoanalytic theory]] is not the [[biology|male genital organ]] in its [[biology|biological]] [[reality]] but the role that this organ plays in [[fantasy]]. Hence [[Lacan]] usually reserves the term "[[phallus|penis]]" for the [[biology|biological organ]], and the term "[[phallus]]" for the [[imaginary]] and [[symbolic]] functions of this [[biology|organ]].

<!-- While this terminological distinction is not found in [[Freud]]'s [[Works of Sigmund Freud|work]], it responds to the logic implicit in [[Freud]]'s formulations on the [[phallus|penis]]. For example, when [[Freud]] speaks of a [[symbolic]] equation between the [[phallus|penis]] and the [[baby]] which allows the [[girl]] to appease her [[penis envy]] by having a [[child]], it is clear that he is not talking about the [[biology|real organ]].<ref>{{F}} "[[Works of Sigmund Freud|On the Transformations of Instinct, as Exemplified in Anal Eroticism]]." 1917c. [[SE]] XVII, 127</ref> It can be argued, then, that [[Lacan]]'s terminological innovation simply clarifies certain distinctions that were already implicit in [[Freud]]'s [[Works of Sigmund Freud|work]]. -->

Although not prominent in [[Lacan]]'s [[Works of Jacques Lacan|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]] operates in all three of [[Lacan]]'s [[register]]s - the [[imaginary]], the [[symbolic]] and the [[real]] - and as his system develops it becomes the one single indivisible [[signifier]] that anchors the [[chain]] of [[signification]]. Indeed, it is a particularly privileged [[signifier]] because it inaugurates the process of [[signification]] itself.

The [[phallus]] is one of the three elements in the [[imaginary]] [[structure|triangle]] that constitutes the [[preoedipal phase]]. It is an [[imaginary]] [[object]] which circulates between the other two elements, the [[mother]] and the [[child]].<ref>{{S3}} p. 319</ref> The [[mother]] [[desire]]s this [[object]] and the [[child]] seeks to satisfy her [[desire]] by [[identifying]] with the [[phallus]] or with the [[phallus|phallic mother]]. In the [[Oedipus complex]] the [[father]] intervenes as a fourth term in this [[imaginary]] [[structure|triangle]] by [[castration|castrating]] the [[child]]; that is, he makes it impossible for the [[child]] to [[identify]] with the [[phallus|imaginary phallus]]. The [[child]] is then faced with the choice of accepting his [[castration]] (accepting that he cannot be the [[mother]]'s [[phallus]]) or rejecting it. ((For Lacan, the phallus is not to be equated with the penis, and as a signifier it performs a different function in each of the three orders: the imaginary, the symbolic and the real. ))

[[Lacan]] argues that both [[boy]]s and [[girl]]s 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}} p. 282</ref> The renunciation by both [[sexual difference|sexes]] of [[identification]] with the [[phallus|imaginary phallus]] paves the way for a relationship with the [[phallus|symbolic phallus]] which is different for the [[sexual difference|sexes]]; the man has the [[phallus|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 [[woman|man]] can only lay claim to the [[phallus|symbolic phallus]] on condition that he has assumed his own [[castration]] (has given up being the [[phallus|imaginary phallus]]), and by the fact that the [[woman]]'s [[lack]] of the [[phallus|symbolic phallus]] is also a kind of possession.<ref>{{S4}} p. 153</ref>

The status of the [[phallus]]: [[real]], [[imaginary]] or [[symbolic]]? [[Lacan]] speaks of the [[phallus|real phallus]], the [[phallus|imaginary phallus]] and the [[phallus|symbolic phallus]]:

As has already been observed, [[Lacan]] usually uses the term "[[phallus|penis]]" to denote the [[real]] [[biology|biological organ]] and reserves the term "[[phallus]]" to denote the [[imaginary]] and [[symbolic]] functions of this [[biology|organ]]. However, he does not always maintain this usage, occasionally using the term "[[phallus|real phallus]]" to denote the [[biology|biological organ]], or using the terms "[[phallus|symbolic phallus]]" and "[[phallus|symbolic penis]]" as if they were synonymous.<ref>{{S4}} p. 153</ref> This apparent confusion and semantic [[slip]]page has led some commentators to argue that the supposed distinction between the [[phallus]] and the [[phallus|penis]] is in fact highly unstable and that "the phallus concept is the site of a regression towards the biological organ."<ref>Macey, David. (1988) ''Lacan in Contexts''. London and New York: Verso. 1988: 191</ref>

While the [[phallus|imaginary phallus]] and the [[phallus|symbolic phallus]] are discussed more extensively by [[Lacan]] than the [[phallus|real phallus]], he does not entirely ignore the latter. On the contrary, the [[phallus|real penis]] has an important role to play in the [[Oedipus complex]] of the little boy, for it is precisely via this [[biology|organ]] that his [[sexuality]] makes itself felt in infantile masturbation; this intrusion of the [[real]] in the [[imaginary]] [[preoedipal]] [[structure|triangle]] is what transforms the [[structure|triangle]] from something [[pleasure principle|pleasurable]] to something which provokes [[anxiety]].<ref>{{S4}} p. 225-6; {{S4}} p. 341</ref> The question posed in the [[Oedipus complex]] is that of where the [[phallus|real phallus]] is located; the answer required for the resolution of this [[complex]] is that it is located in the [[real]] [[father]].<ref>{{S4}} p. 281</ref> The [[phallus|real phallus]] is written Π in [[Lacan]]ian [[algebra]].

When [[Lacan]] first introduces the distinction between [[phallus|penis]] and [[phallus]], the [[phallus]] refers to an [[imaginary]] [[object]].<ref>{{S4}} p. 31</ref> This is the "[[phallus|image of the penis]]",<ref>{{E}} p. 319</ref> the [[phallus|penis]] imagined as a [[part-object]] which may be detached from the [[fragmented body|body]] by [[castration]],<ref>{{E}} p. 315</ref> the "phallic image".<ref>{{E}} p. 320</ref> The [[phallus|imaginary phallus]] is perceived by the [[child]] in the [[preoedipal phase]] as the [[object]] of the [[mother]]'s [[desire]], as that which she [[desire]]s 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 [[phallus|imaginary phallus]]. The [[phallus|imaginary phallus]] is written φ (lower-case phi) in [[Lacan]]ian [[algebra]], which also represents [[phallus|phallic signification]]. [[Castration]] is written -φ (minus lower-case phi).

As we saw above, the child slowly comes to realise that it is not identical to, or the sole object of, the mother's desire, as her desire is directed elsewhere. He/she will therefore attempt to once again become the object of her desire and return to the initial state of blissful union. The simple dyadic relationship between the mother and child is thus turned into a triangular relationship between the child, the mother and the object of her desire. The child attempts to seduce the mother by becoming that object of desire. Lacan calls this third term the imaginary phallus. The imaginary phallus is what the child assumes someone must have in order for them to be the object of the mother's desire and, as her desire is usually directed towards the father, it is assumed that he possesses the phallus. Through trying to satisfy the mother's desire, the child identifies with the object that it presumes she has lost and attempts to become that object for her. The phallus is imaginary in the sense that it is associated in the child's mind with an actual object that has been lost and can be recovered. The Oedipus complex, for Lacan, involves the process of giving up the identification with this imaginary phallus, and recognizing that it is a signifier and as such was never there in the first place. What Freud called castration, therefore, is a symbolic process that involves the infant's recognition of themselves as 'lacking' something - the phallus. For Lacan, castration involves the process whereby boys accept that they can symbolically 'have' the phallus only by accepting that they can never actually have it 'in reality' and girls can accept 'not-having' the phallus once they give up on their 'phallic' identification with their mothers (we will discuss this very complicated idea in more detail in the chapter on sexual difference). This is the function of the Oedipus complex in Lacan.

The [[phallus|imaginary phallus]] which circulates between [[mother]] and [[child]] serves to institute the first [[dialectic]] in the child's life, 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 [[phallus|imaginary phallus]] in the [[seminar]] of 1956-7 are accompanied by statements that the [[phallus]] is also a [[symbolic]] [[object]]<ref>{{S4}} p. 152</ref> and that the [[phallus]] is a [[signifier]].<ref>{{S4}} p. 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}} p. 290</ref> and the [[signifier]] of ''[[jouissance]]''.<ref>{{E}} p. 320</ref>

The [[phallus|symbolic phallus]] is written ф in [[Lacan]]ian [[algebra]]. However, [[Lacan]] warns his students that the complexity of this [[symbol]] might be missed if they simply identify it with the [[phallus|symbolic phallus]].<ref>{{S8}} p. 296</ref> The [[symbol]] is more correctly understood as designating the "[[phallus|phallic function]]."<ref>{{S8}} p. 298</ref> In the early 1970s [[Lacan]] incorporates this [[symbol]] of the [[phallus|phallic function]] in his [[sexual difference|formulae of sexuation]]. Using predicate logic to articulate the problems of [[sexual difference]], [[Lacan]] devises two [[algebra|formulae]] for the [[sexual difference|masculine position]] and two [[algebra|formulae]] for the [[sexual difference|feminine position]]. All four [[algebra|formulae]] revolve around the [[phallus|phallic function]], which is here equivalent with the function of [[castration]].

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.

Firstly, some feminist writers have argued that the privileged position [[Lacan]] accords to the [[phallus]] means that he merely repeats the patriarchal gestures of [[Freud]] (e.g. Grosz, 1990). Other feminists have defended [[Lacan]], arguing that his distinction between the [[phallus]] and the [[phallus|penis]] provides a way of accounting for [[sexual difference]] which is irreducible to [[biology]] (e.g. Mitchell and Rose, 1982).

==See Also==