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==Sigmund Freud======Phallus and Penis====[[Freud]]'s [[Works of Sigmund Freud|work]] abounds in references to the [[phallus|penis]]Image:Kida_p. [[Freud]] argues that children of both [[sexual differencegif |sexes]] set great value on the [[phallusright|penis]], and that their discovery that some [[human]] [[being]]s do not possess a [[phallusframe|penis]] leads to important psychical consequences. However, the term "[[phallus]]" rarely appears in [[Freud]]'s ''[[Works of Sigmund FreudKid_A_In_Alphabet_Land_-_Phallus|workKid A In Alphabet Land Pacifies Another Pernicious Persona - The Phony Phallus!]], and when it does it is used as a synonym of "[[phallus|penis''']]".

=Sigmund Freud===Sexual Difference==Phallus and Penis==[[Freud]] does use did not distinguish between the adjective "[[phallicpenis]]" more frequently, such as in the expression the "an actual ([[phallic phaseanatomical]]", but again this implies no rigorous distinction between the terms ") [[phallusbody|bodily organ]]" and "the [[phallus|penis]]", since the [[phallic phase]] denotes as a stage in [[developmentsignifier]] in which the of [[child]] ([[boy]] or [[girl]]) knows only one [[biology|genital organ]] - the [[phallus|penissexual difference]].

==Jacques LacanPhallic Phase==[[LacanFreud]] called the [[development|period]] between [[development|three and five years of age]] generally prefers to use the term "[[phallusphallic phase]]." rather than " The [[phallic phase]] denotes a [[stage]] in [[phallus|penisdevelopment]]" in order to emphasize which the fact that what concerns [[psychoanalytic theorychild]] ([[boy]] or [[girl]]) [[knows]] is not the only one [[biology|male genital organ]] in its - the [[biologyphallus|biologicalpenis]] . At this stage, infants of both [[realitysexes]] but are dominated by the question of who possesses a penis and the role that this organ plays in related issue of its masturbatory jouissance ([[fantasygratification]]). Hence [[LacanFreud]] usually reserves the term "argues that [[children]] of both [[phallussexual difference|penissexes]] set great [[value]]" for on the [[biologyphallus|biological organpenis]], and the term "that their discovery that some [[human]] [[being]]s do not possess a [[phallus|penis]] leads to important [[psyche|psychical]]" for consequences. Up to this point, the mother is imagined as having a penis, and the discovery that she [[imaginarylacks]] and a penis, after an initial [[symbolicdenial]] functions of this , precipitates the [[biologyCastration Complex|organcastration complex]].

<!-- =====Freud's Work===== --><!-- While this terminological distinction had his first intuition of the primacy of the phallus as early as 1905 in "[[Three]] essays on the theory of sexuality"; it is not found explicitly discussed in "The [[Freudinfantile]]'s genital organization," which Freud offered in 1923 as a complement to "Three Essays." In this later [[Works of Sigmund Freud|worktext]], it responds the predominance of the phallus is linked to the logic implicit problematic of castration in the following way:<blockquote>The main characteristic of this 'infantile genital organization' is its [[Freuddifference]]'s formulations on from the final genital organization of the [[phallus|penisadult]]. For exampleThis consists in the fact that, when 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 phallus. [Freud1923, p. 142 ]</blockquote>The fact that the essential [[role]] speaks of only one genital organ is recognized at a certain stage in infantile [[symbolicsexual]] equation between development implies 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 [[phallus|penisrepresent]] and subjectively.Freud ( 1923) makes the same radical [[babydistinction]] which allows by linking castration to the phallic [[girlorder]]and not to the penis.<blockquote>The lack of a penis [my italics] is regarded as a result of castration, and so now the child is faced with the task of coming to appease her [[penis envyterms]] by having a with castration in relation to himself. The further developments are too well known generally to make it necessary to recapitulate [[childthem]], here. But it is clear seems to me that he is not talking about the [[biologysignificance]] of the [[Castration Complex|real organcastration complex]] can only be rightly appreciated if its origin in the [[phase]]of phallic primacy is also taken into account. [ Freud's italics][p.144]<ref/blockquote>{{F}} In fact, sexual difference is constituted from the outset on the basis of this [[notion]] of lack: the [[feminine]] genital organ is 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 [[Works domain]] of Sigmund Freud|On these [[Freudian]] references that Lacan systematizes the Transformations problematics of Instinctthe phallus as foundational to [[psychoanalytic]] theory. Specifically, Lacan establishes the phallus as Exemplified the primordial signifier of desire in Anal Eroticism[[oedipal]]triangulation." 1917c. The [[SEOedipus]] XVII, 127</ref> It can be argued, then, that complex plays itself out around locating the [[Lacanposition]]'s terminological innovation simply clarifies certain distinctions that were already implicit of the phallus in relation to the desire of the mother, the child, and the father. A [[Freuddialectical]]'s [[Works of Sigmund Freud|workprocess]]develops in two modes: that of being the phallus and that of having the phallus. -->

====Jacques Lacan's Work====The term [[phallic]] occupies an important [[place]] in [[Lacanian]] [[speech|discourse]]. The [[phallus]] plays a central role in both the [[Oedipus complex]] and in the theory of [[sexual difference]].<!-- 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]].-->

For ===Not Penis===[[Lacan]], generally prefers to use the importance of term "[[Freudphallus]]'s insight into infantile sexuality was not whether or not girls have a " rather than "[[phallus|penis and boys fear ]]" in order to emphasize the fact that theirs will be cut off, what concerns [[psychoanalytic theory]] is not the [[biology|male genital organ]] in its [[biology|biological]] [[reality]] but the function of role that this organ plays in [[fantasy]]. Hence [[Lacan]] usually reserves the term "[[phallus|penis]]" for the [[biology|biological organ]], and the term "[[phallus]] as a " for the [[signifierimaginary]] and [[symbolic]] functions of this [[lackbiology|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 [[sexual differencelife]]of both sexes from its anatomical role.

===Signifier===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 first and foremost a [[signifier]] and in [[Lacan]]'s [[system]] a particularly privileged [[signifier]]. 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.

==Oedipus complex==The [[phallus]] operates is one of the three elements in all three of the [[Lacanimaginary]]'s [[registerstructure|triangle]]s - that constitutes the [[preoedipal phase]]. It is an [[imaginary]][[object]] which circulates between the other two elements, the [[symbolicmother]] and the [[realchild]].<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 his system develops a fourth term in this [[imaginary]] [[structure|triangle]] by [[castration|castrating]] the [[child]]; that is, he makes it becomes [[impossible]] for the [[child]] to [[identify]] with the one single indivisible [[signifierphallus|imaginary phallus]]. The [[child]] is then faced with the [[choice]] of accepting his [[castration]] (accepting that anchors he cannot be the [[chainmother]] of 's [[significationphallus]]) or rejecting it. Indeed((For Lacan, the phallus is not to be equated with the penis, and as a signifier it is performs a particularly privileged different function in each of the three [[signifierorders]] because it inaugurates : [[The Imaginary|the process of imaginary]], [[significationthe symbolic]] itselfand the real.))

  ====Oedipus complex====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 [[motherSexual Difference]] [[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. )) ===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, "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 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]]" 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]].

====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).

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|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|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|the Oedipus complex ]] in Lacan.<!-- 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 be 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 Symbolic Phallus====<!-- When the phallus takes on the role of signifier, this implies that [[The Subject|the subject]] grasps it in the [[Other, the]] locus of the set of [[signifiers]] that determines [[The Subject|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|the subject]] her own jouissance. -->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>

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]].

<!--desire and signification. It is desire that [[drives]] the process of [[symbolization]]. The 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 [[time]], it is symbolic in that it stands in for the recognition that desire cannot be [[satisfied]]. By breaking [[The Imaginary|the imaginary]] couple 'the phallus represents a moment of [[division]] [that “lack-in-being”] which re-enacts the fundamental [[splitting]] 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 [[intervention]] of the [[Name]]-of-the-Father that [[The 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|Name-of-the-Father]] is a symbolic function that intrudes into the [[illusory]] [[world]] of the child andbreaks [[The Imaginary|the imaginary]] 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 significationbegins and child enters the [[symbolic order]] as a subject of lack. It is desire also for this [[reason]] that drives Lacan describes the process of symbolizationitself 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 ultimate 'original' [[lost object of desire that we have lost and always search for ]], but never had 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. -->

To summarizeFirstly, before we explore this complex idea further, the phallus stands for some [[feminist]] writers have argued that moment of rupture when the child is forced privileged position [[Lacan]] accords to recognize the desire of [[phallus]] means that he merely repeats the other; patriarchal gestures of the mother[[Freud]] (e.g. '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: 61Grosz, 1990). The phallus Other feminists have defended [[Lacan]], therefore, always belongs somewhere else; it breaks the mother/child dyad and initiates the order of symbolic exchange. In this sense arguing that his distinction between 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 time, it is symbolic in that it stands in for the recognition that desire cannot be satisfied. By breaking the imaginary couple 'the [[phallus represents |penis]] provides a moment way of division accounting for [[that “lack-in-being”sexual difference]] which re-enacts the fundamental splitting of the subject itself' is irreducible to [[biology]] (e.g. Mitchell and Rose 1996a: 63, 1982). As a presence in absence, a 'seeming' value, the phallus is a fraud .

The second main objection to [[Lacan]]'s concept of the [[phallus]] is that put forward by [[Jacques Derrida]].<ref>Derrida, Jacques. (1975) "Le facteur de la vérité." ''The Post Card: From [[Socrates]] to Freud and Beyond''. Trans. Alan Bass, Chicago and London: [[University]] of Chicago Press, 1987 [1975]: 413-96</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]].------>

 It is through the intervention of the Name-of-the-Father that 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 is a symbolic function that intrudes into the illusory world of the child andbreaks the imaginary 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 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. 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 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 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 father is seen to possess the phallus, then the child can only become a subject itself in 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. 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 phallus provides the vital link between ===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, Jacques. (1975) "Le facteur de la vérité." ''The Post Card: From Socrates to Freud and Beyond''. Trans. Alan Bass, Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1987 [1975]: 413-96</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]]. ==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=====