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=====Sigmund Freud==========Phallus and Penis===== [[Freud]]Image:Kida_p.gif |right|frame|'''s [[Works of Sigmund FreudKid_A_In_Alphabet_Land_-_Phallus|workKid A In Alphabet Land Pacifies Another Pernicious Persona - The Phony Phallus!]] abounds in references to the [[phallus|penis''']].

=Sigmund Freud===Phallus and Penis==[[Freud]] argues that children of both did not distinguish between the [[penis]] as an actual ([[sexual difference|sexesanatomical]] set great value on the ) [[phallusbody|penisbodily organ]], and that their discovery that some the [[humanphallus]] as a [[beingsignifier]]s do not possess a of [[phallus|penissexual difference]] leads to important psychical consequences.

However, ==Phallic Phase==[[Freud]] called the [[development|period]] between [[development|three and five years of age]] the term "[[phallusphallic phase]]." rarely appears The [[phallic phase]] denotes a [[stage]] in [[development]] in which the [[child]] ([[boy]] or [[girl]]) [[knows]] only one [[biology|genital organ]] - the [[phallus|penis]]. 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]]). [[Freud]]'s argues that [[Works children]] of Sigmund Freudboth [[sexual difference|sexes]] set great [[value]] on the [[phallus|workpenis]], and when it does it that their discovery that some [[human]] [[being]]s do not possess a [[phallus|penis]] leads to important [[psyche|psychical]] consequences. Up to this point, the mother is used imagined as having a penis, and the discovery that she [[lacks]] a synonym of "penis, after an initial [[denial]], precipitates the [[phallusCastration Complex|peniscastration complex]]".

=====Sexual Difference===== <!--Freud had his first intuition of the primacy of the phallus as early as 1905 in "[[FreudThree]] does use essays on the adjective theory of sexuality"; it is explicitly discussed in "The [[phallicinfantile]]genital organization," more frequently, such which Freud offered in 1923 as in the expression the a complement to "Three Essays."In this later [[phallic phasetext]]", but again the predominance of the phallus is linked to the problematic of castration in the following way:<blockquote>The main characteristic of this implies no rigorous distinction between 'infantile genital organization' is its [[difference]] from the final genital organization of the terms "[[phallusadult]]" and ". This consists in the fact that, for both sexes, only one genital, namely the male one, comes into account. What is [[phallus|penispresent]]", since therefore, is not a primacy of the genitals, but a primacy of the phallus. [ Freud 1923, p. 142 ]</blockquote>The fact that the essential [[phallic phaserole]] denotes of only one genital organ is recognized at a certain stage in infantile [[sexual]] developmentimplies that this primacy, from the outset, is not located in the realm of anatomical reality or on the level of organs, but precisely on the level of what a lack of the organ might [[represent]] subjectively.Freud ( 1923) makes the same radical [[distinction]] in which by linking castration to the phallic [[order]] and not to the penis.<blockquote>The lack of a penis [my italics] is regarded as a result of castration, and so now the childis faced with the task of coming to [[terms]] with castration in relation to himself. The further developments are too well known generally to make it necessary to recapitulate [[them]] (here. But it seems to me that the [[boysignificance]] or of the [[girlCastration Complex|castration complex]]) knows can only one be rightly appreciated if its origin in the [[phase]] of phallic primacy is also taken into account. [ Freud's italics] [p. 144]</blockquote>In fact, sexual difference is constituted from the outset on the basis of this [[notion]] of lack: the [[biology|feminine]] genital organis different from the [[masculine]] one only because it lacks something. In addition, the product of observation (perceptual reality) is immediately elaborated on the [[subjective]] level as a conception: Freud writes "the lack of a penis is regarded as." As Freud ( 1923) puts it, this lack confronts the child "with the task of coming to terms with castration in relation to himself" (p. 144).- -><!-- It is in the [[domain]] of these [[Freudian]] references that Lacan systematizes the problematics of the phallus as foundational to [[psychoanalytic]] theory. Specifically, Lacan establishes the phallus as the primordial signifier of desire in [[oedipal]] triangulation. The [[Oedipus]] complex plays itself out around locating the [[position]] of the phallus|penisin relation to the desire of the mother, the child, and the father. A [[dialectical]] [[process]]develops in two modes: that of being the phallus and that of having the phallus.-->

=====Jacques Lacan=====The term [[phallic]] occupies an important [[place]] in [[LacanLacanian]] generally prefers to use the term "[[phallusspeech|discourse]]" rather than ". The [[phallus|penis]]" plays a central role in order to emphasize both the fact that what concerns [[psychoanalytic Oedipus complex]] and in the theoryof [[sexual difference]] is .<!-- Although not the prominent in [[biology|male genital organLacan]] in its 's [[biologyWorks of Jacques Lacan|biologicalwork]] before the mid-1950s, the term "[[realityphallus]] but the role that this organ plays " occupies an ever more important place in his [[fantasydiscourse]]thereafter. -->

===Not 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]]. [[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 Work==Signifier===While this terminological distinction For [[Lacan]] focus on the function of the [[phallus]] as a [[signifier]] of [[lack]] and [[sexual difference]]. The [[phallus]] in [[Lacan]]ian [[theory]] should not be confused with the [[male]] [[genital]] [[organ]], although it clearly carries those connotations. The [[phallus]] is not found first and foremost a [[signifier]] and in [[FreudLacan]]'s [[Works system]] a particularly privileged [[signifier]]. The [[phallus]] operates in all three of Sigmund Freud|work[[Lacan]]'s [[register]]s - the [[imaginary]], the [[symbolic]] and the [[real]] - and as his system develops it responds to becomes the logic implicit in one single indivisible [[signifier]] that anchors the [[chain]] of [[signification]]. Indeed, it is a particularly privileged [[Freudsignifier]]'s formulations on because it inaugurates the process of [[phallus|penissignification]]itself.

For example, when ==Oedipus complex==The [[Freudphallus]] speaks is one of a the three elements in the [[imaginary]] [[structure|triangle]] that constitutes the [[preoedipal phase]]. It is an [[imaginary]] [[symbolicobject]] equation which circulates between the other two elements, the [[phallus|penismother]] and the [[babychild]].<ref>{{S3}} p. 319</ref> The [[mother]] [[desire]]s this [[object]] which allows and the [[girlchild]] seeks to appease [[satisfy]] her [[penis envydesire]] by having [[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 clear then faced with the [[choice]] of accepting his [[castration]] (accepting that he is not talking about cannot be the [[biology|real organmother]].<ref>{{F}} "'s [[Works of Sigmund Freud|On phallus]]) or rejecting it. ((For Lacan, the phallus is not to be equated with the Transformations of Instinctpenis, and as Exemplified a signifier it performs a different function in Anal Eroticismeach of the three [[orders]]." 1917c. : [[SEThe Imaginary|the imaginary]] XVII, 127</ref> [[the symbolic]] and the real. ))

It can be argued==[[Sexual Difference]]== [[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, then"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 [[Lacanclaim]] to the [[phallus|symbolic phallus]] on condition that he has assumed his own [[castration]] (has given up being the [[phallus|imaginary phallus]]'s terminological innovation simply clarifies certain distinctions ), and by the fact that were already implicit in the [[Freudwoman]]'s [[Works lack]] of Sigmund Freudthe [[phallus|worksymbolic phallus]]is also a kind of possession.<ref>{{S4}} p.153</ref>

=====Lacan's Work=====Although not prominent in The status of the [[phallus]]: [[real]], [[imaginary]] or [[symbolic]]? [[Lacan]]'s speaks of the [[Works of Jacques Lacanphallus|workreal phallus]] before the mid-1950s, the term "[[phallus|imaginary phallus]]" occupies an ever more important place in his and the [[discoursephallus|symbolic phallus]] thereafter.:

==[[The Real]] 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]] plays a central role in both " 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 [[Oedipus complexphallus]] and the [[phallus|penis]] is in fact highly unstable and that "the phallus [[concept]] is the theory site of a [[sexual differenceregression]]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===== The ]] of the little boy, for it is precisely via this [[biology|organ]] that his [[sexuality]] makes itself felt in infantile [[phallusmasturbation]] is one ; this intrusion of the three elements [[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 constitutes of where the [[phallus|real phallus]] is located; the answer required for the [[preoedipal phaseresolution]] 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]].

It is ==The Imaginary Phallus==When [[Lacan]] first introduces the distinction between [[phallus|penis]] and [[phallus]], the [[phallus]] refers to an [[imaginary]] [[object]] which circulates between .<ref>{{S4}} p. 31</ref> This is the "[[phallus|image of the other two elementspenis]]", <ref>{{E}} p. 319</ref> the [[phallus|penis]] imagined as a [[part-object]] which may be detached from the [[motherfragmented body|body]] by [[castration]] and ,<ref>{{E}} p. 315</ref> the "phallic [[childimage]]".<ref>{{S3E}} p. 319320</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 motherand the object of her desire. The child attempts to [[seduce]] the mother by becoming that [[object of desire]]s . Lacan calls this [[objectthird]] term the [[imaginary phallus]]. [[The Imaginary|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 [[childidentifies]] seeks with the object that it presumes she has lost and attempts to satisfy become that object for her . The phallus is imaginary in the sense that it is associated in the child's [[desiremind]] by with an actual object that has been lost and can be recovered. The [[identifyingOedipus Complex|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]] or '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|the Oedipus complex]] in Lacan.<!-- According to Lacan, the phallus|phallic 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 be the phallus for the motheruntil 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. -->

In ==The Symbolic Phallus==<!-- When the phallus takes on the role of signifier, this implies that [[Oedipus complexThe Subject|the subject]] grasps it in the [[fatherOther, the]] intervenes as a fourth term in this locus of the set of [[imaginarysignifiers]] that determines [[structureThe Subject|trianglethe subject]] . There it signifies the Other's desire, which is to say that the Other is marked by her own [[castrationincompleteness]]. From then on, the phallus signifies the Other's submission to the laws of symbolic [[exchange]], and such incompleteness frees up in [[The Subject|the subject]] her own jouissance. -->The [[phallus|castratingimaginary 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]]; that , already paves the way towards the [[symbolic]], since an [[imaginary]] element is, he makes it impossible for circulated in much the same way a [[signifier]] (the [[childphallus]] becomes an "[[imaginary]] [[signifier]] to "). Thus [[identifyLacan]] with '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 These arguments are stated in their most definitive form in [[childLacan]] is then faced with 's paper on "[[The Signification of the choice Phallus]]".<ref>{{L}} "[[The Signification of accepting his the Phallus|La signification du phallus]]." ''[[Écrits]]''. [[castrationParis]]: Seuil, 1966 [1958c] (accepting that he cannot be : 685-95 ["[[The Signification of the Phallus|The signification of the phallus]]". Trans. [[motherAlan Sheridan]]'s '[[Écrits: A Selection]]''. London: Tavistock, 1977; New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 1977: 281-91].</ref><blockquote>The phallusis 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 rejecting 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}} p.285</ref></blockquote>

=====Sexual Difference===== Whereas the [[LacanCastration complex]] argues that both and the [[boyOedipus complex]]s and revolve around the [[girlphallus|imaginary phallus]]s must assume their , the question of [[castrationsexual difference]], in the sense that every revolves around [[childphallus|symbolic phallus]] must renounce the possibility of being the . The [[phallus]] for the has no corresponding [[woman|female]] [[mothersignifier]]; this "relationship to the phallus . . . is established without regard a symbol to the anatomical difference which there is no correspondent, no equivalent. It's a matter of a dissymmetry in the sexessignifier.'"<ref>{{ES3}} p. 282176</ref> Both [[sexual difference|male]] and [[sexual difference|female]] [[subject]]s assume their [[sexual difference|sex]] via the [[phallus|symbolic phallus]].

The renunciation by both Unlike the [[phallus|imaginary phallus]], the [[phallus|symbolic phallus]] cannot be [[sexual differencenegation|sexesnegated]], for on the [[symbolic]] plane an [[absence]] is just as much a positive entity as a [[presence]].<ref>{{E}} p. 320</ref> Thus even the [[woman]] of , who [[identificationlack]] with s the [[phallus|imaginary symbolic phallus]] paves in one way, can also be said to possess it, since not having it the way for [[symbolic]] is itself a relationship with form of having.<ref>{{S4}} p. 153</ref> Conversely, the assumption of the [[phallus|symbolic phallus]] which by the man is different for only possible on the basis of the prior assumption of his own [[sexual difference|sexescastration]]. [[Lacan]]; the man has goes on in 1961 to state that the [[phallus|symbolic phallus]] (or, more precisely, "he is not without having it" that which appears in the place of the [[lack]] of the [[signifier]] in the [[Other]].<ref>{{S8}} p. 278-81</ref> It is no ordinary [[''il n'est pas sans l'avoir''signifier]]), but the [[womanreal]] [[presence]] of [[desire]] itself.<ref>{{S8}} p. 290</ref> In 1973 he states that the [[phallus|symbolic phallus]] is "the signifier which does nothave a signified".<ref>{{S20}} p. 75</ref>

This The [[phallus|symbolic phallus]] is complicated by the fact that the written ф in [[Lacan]]ian [[woman|manalgebra]] can only lay claim to the . However, [[phallus|symbolic phallusLacan]] on condition warns his students that he has assumed his own the complexity of this [[castrationsymbol]] (has given up being might be missed if they simply identify it with the [[phallus|imaginary symbolic phallus]]), and by the fact that the .<ref>{{S8}} p. 296</ref> The [[womansymbol]]'s is more correctly [[lackunderstood]] of as designating the "[[phallus|symbolic phallusphallic function]] is also a kind of possession."<ref>{{S4S8}} p. 153298</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]].

<!-- desire and signification. It is desire that [[drives]] the process of [[symbolization]]. The status phallus is the ultimate [[Object of Desire|object of desire]] that we have lost and always [[search]] for but never had in the first place. --><!-- To summarize, before we explore this complex idea further, the phallus stands for that moment of rupture when the child is [[forced]] to recognize the desire of the other; of the mother. 'The mother is refused to the child in so far as a [[prohibition]] falls on the child's desire to be what the mother desires' (Rose 1996a: 61). The phallus, therefore, always belongs somewhere else; it breaks the mother/child [[dyad]]: and initiates the order of symbolic exchange. In this sense the phallus is both imaginary and symbolic. It is imaginary in that it represents the object presumed to satisfy the mother's desire; at the same [[realtime]], it is symbolic in that it stands in for the recognition that desire cannot be [[satisfied]]. By breaking [[The Imaginary|the imaginary]] or couple 'the phallus represents a moment of [[division]] [that “lack-in-being”] which re-enacts the fundamental [[symbolicsplitting]] of [[The Subject|the subject]]? itself' (Rose 1996a: 63). As a presence in absence, a 'seeming' value, the phallus is a fraud . -->

<!-- It is through the [[Lacanintervention]] of the [[Name]] speaks -of -the -Father that [[phallusThe Imaginary|the imaginary]] [[unity]] between child and mother is broken. The father is assumed to possess something that the child lacks and it is this that the mother desires. It is important here though not to confuse the [[Name-of-the-Father]] with the actual father. The [[Name-of-the-father|real phallusName-of-the-Father]] is a symbolic function that intrudes into the [[illusory]] [[world]], of the child andbreaks [[phallusThe Imaginary|the imaginary phallus]] dyad of the mother and child. The child assumes that the father is one that [[satisfies]] the mother's desire and possesses the phallus. In this sense, argues Lacan, the [[Oedipus Complex|Oedipus complex]] involves an element of [[substitution]], that is to say, the substitution of one signifier, the desire of the mother, for [[another]], the [[Name-of-the-father|Name-of-the-Father]]. It is through this initial act of substitution that the process of signification begins and child enters the [[symbolic order]] as a subject of lack. It is also for this [[reason]] that Lacan describes the process of symbolization itself as 'phallic'. It is through the [[Name-of-the-father|Name-of-the-Father]] that the phallus is installed as the central organizing signifier of the [[unconscious]]. The phallus is the 'original' [[lost object]], but only insofar as no one possessed it in the first place. The phallus, therefore, is not like any other signifier, it is the signifier of absence and does not '[[exist]]' in its own [[right]] as a [[thing]], an object or a [[bodily]]:organ. Let us look at this more closely. -->

=====<!-- Lacan equates the process of giving up the imaginary phallus with Freud's account of [[castration anxiety]], but he argues that the process of castration in Freud is more complicated than [[people]] generally [[think]]. Castration involves not just an anxiety [[about]] losing one's penis but simultaneously the recognition of lack or absence . The child is concerned about losing its own penis and simultaneously recognizes that the mother does not have a penis. The idea of the penis, therefore, becomes metonymically linked to the recognition of lack . It is in this sense that Lacan argues that the phallus is not simply the penis; it is the penis plus the recognition of absence or lack . Castration is not the [[fear]] that one has already lost, in the case of girls, or will lose, in the case of boys, one's penis but rather [[The Symbolic|the symbolic]] process of giving up the idea that one can be the phallus for the mother. The intervention of the father distances the child from the mother and also places the phallus forever beyond its reach. If [[The Symbolic|the symbolic]] father is seen to possess the phallus, then the child can only become a subject itself in [[The Symbolic|the symbolic]] order by renouncing the imaginary phallus. The problem for Lacan is how does one symbolically represent 'lack' - something that by definition is not there? His solution is the idea of the '[[veil]]'. The presence of the veil suggests that there is an object behind it, which the veil covers over, although this is only a presumption on the part of [[The Subject|the subject]]. In this way the veil enables the perpetuation of the idea that the object [[exists]]. Thus, both boys and girls can have a relationship to the phallus on the basis that it always remains veiled and out of reach. The Real Phallus=phallus provides the vital link between --><!-- ==Phallic Jouissance== As has already been observedIn his seminar on [[female]] sexuality (1998), Lacan further specified what he meant by the term "[[Lacanphallic jouissance]] usually uses ." He used the term phallic signifier (Φ) in [[writing]] his "[[phallus|penisformulas]] of [[sexuation]]," which posit that every human being has to denote be on one side or the other of the sexual [[realdivide]] . A woman always has something of the phallus (she is not entirely [[biology|biological organcastrated]] ), and reserves the term 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 [phallus[Castration Complex|castration complex]]the fact that " there is no sexual relation," as Lacan said, referring to denote the [[imaginaryimpossibility]] of writing an equation of the relationship between the sexes. --><!-- ===Criticisms of Lacan===Of all [[Lacan]] and 's [[symbolicideas]] functions , his concept of this the [[phallus]] is perhaps the one which has given rise to most controversy. Objections to [[biology|organLacan]]'s concept fall into two main groups.

HoweverFirstly, he does not always maintain this usage, occasionally using some [[feminist]] writers have argued that the privileged position [[Lacan]] accords to the term "[[phallus|real phallus]]" to denote means that he merely repeats the patriarchal gestures of [[Freud]] (e.g. Grosz, 1990). Other feminists have defended [[biology|biological organLacan]], or using arguing that his distinction between the terms "[[phallus|symbolic phallus]]" and "the [[phallus|symbolic penis]]" as if they were synonymousprovides a way of accounting for [[sexual difference]] which is irreducible to [[biology]] (e.<ref>{{S4}} pg. Mitchell and Rose, 1982). 153</ref>

This apparent confusion and semantic The second main objection to [[slipLacan]]page has led some commentators to argue that the supposed distinction between 's concept of the [[phallus]] and the is that put forward by [[phallus|penisJacques Derrida]] is in fact highly unstable and that "the phallus concept is the site of a regression towards the biological organ."<ref>MaceyDerrida, DavidJacques. (19881975) "Le facteur de la vérité." ''Lacan in ContextsThe Post Card: From [[Socrates]] to Freud and Beyond''. Trans. Alan Bass, Chicago and London and New York: Verso. 1988[[University]] of Chicago Press, 1987 [1975]: 191413-96</ref> and echoed by [[others]]. [[Derrida]] argues that, despite [[Lacan]]'s protestations of anti-transcendentalism, the [[phallus]] operates as a [[transcendental]] element which [[acts]] as an [[ideal]] [[guarantee]] of [[meaning]]. How can there be such a thing as a "privileged signifier", asks [[Derrida]], given that every [[signifier]] is defined only by its differences from other [[signifier]]s? The [[phallus]], in other [[words]], reintroduces the [[metaphysics]] of [[presence]] which [[Derrida]] denominates as [[logocentrism]], and thus [[Derrida]] concludes that, by articulating this with [[phallocentrism]], [[Lacan]] has created a [[phallocentrism|phallogocentric system of thought]].-->

--- 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]]. =====The Imaginary Phallus=====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). =====The Symbolic Phallus=====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> ---- These arguments are stated in their most definitive form in [[Lacan]]'s paper on "[[The Signification of the Phallus]]".<ref>{{L}} "[[The Signification of the Phallus|La signification du phallus]]." ''[[Écrits]]''. Paris: Seuil, 1966 [1958c]: 685-95 ["[[The Signification of the Phallus|The signification of the phallus]]". Trans. [[Alan Sheridan]] ''[[Écrits: A Selection]]''. London: Tavistock, 1977; New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 1977: 281-91].</ref> <blockquote>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}} p. 285</ref></blockquote> Whereas the [[Castration complex]] and the [[Oedipus complex]] revolve around the [[phallus|imaginary phallus]], the question of [[sexual difference]] revolves around [[phallus|symbolic phallus]].  The [[phallus]] has no corresponding [[woman|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 [[sexual difference|male]] and [[sexual difference|female]] [[subject]]s assume their [[sexual difference|sex]] via the [[phallus|symbolic phallus]]. ---- Unlike the [[phallus|imaginary phallus]], the [[phallus|symbolic phallus]] cannot be [[negation|negated]], for on the [[symbolic]] plane an [[absence]] is just as much a positive entity as a [[presence]].<ref>{{E}} p. 320</ref>  Thus even the [[woman]], who [[lack]]s the [[phallus|symbolic phallus]] in one way, can also be said to possess it, since not having it the [[symbolic]] is itself a form of having.<ref>{{S4}} p. 153</ref>  Conversely, the assumption of the [[phallus|symbolic phallus]] by the man is only possible on the basis of the prior assumption of his own [[castration]]. [[Lacan]] goes on in 1961 to state that the [[phallus|symbolic phallus]] is that which appears in the place of the [[lack]] of the [[signifier]] in the [[Other]].<ref>{{S8}} p. 278-81</ref>  It is no ordinary [[signifier]] but the [[real]] [[presence]] of [[desire]] itself.<ref>{{S8}} p. 290</ref>  In 1973 he states that the [[phallus|symbolic phallus]] is "the signifier which does not have a signified".<ref>{{S20}} p. 75</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]]. =====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. ---- 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). --- The second main objection to [[Lacan]]'s concept of the [[phallus]] is that put forward by [[Jacques Derrida]].<ref>Derrida, 1975</ref> and echoed by others.  [[Derrida]] argues that, despite [[Lacan]]'s protestations of anti-transcendentalism, the [[phallus]] operates as a transcendental element which acts as an ideal guarantee of [[meaning]].  How can there be such a thing as a "privileged signifier", asks [[Derrida]], given that every [[signifier]] is defined only by its differences from other [[signifier]]s?  The [[phallus]], in other words, reintroduces the metaphysics of [[presence]] which [[Derrida]] denominates as logocentrism, and thus [[Derrida]] concludes that, by articulating this with [[phallocentrism]], [[Lacan]] has created a [[phallocentrism|phallogocentric system of thought]]. =====See Also=====

=External Links===* Hook, Derek (2006). [http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/960/1/Lacanthemeaning.pdf Lacan, the meaning of the phallus and the ‘sexed’ subject] [online]. London: LSE Research Online. Available at: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/960  =References=<div style="font-size:11px" class==="references-small">