Changes

[[Image:Graph.of.Sexuation.jpg|thumb|right]]The phrase "[[sexual difference]]", which has come into prominence in the debate between [[psychoanalysis]] and [[feminism]], is not part of [[Freud]]'s or [[Lacan]]'s [[psychoanalytic theory|theoretical ]] [[:Category:Terms|vocabulary]].

[[Freud]] speaks only of the [[biology|anatomical ''distinction'' ]] between the [[sexes ]] and its [[psychical ]] consequences.<ref>[[Freud|Freud, Sigmund]]. "The [[Dissolution]] of the Oedipus [[Complex]]." SE XIX, 183. 1925d1925.</ref>

[[Lacan]] speaks of [[sexual position|sexual ''position'' ]] and the [[sexual relationship|sexual ''relationship'']], and occasionally of the ''differentiation'' of the sexes.<ref>{{S4}} p.154</ref>

However, both [[Freud]] and [[Lacan]] address the question of [[sexual difference]], and an entry has been included for this temr term because it brings together an import set of related themes in [[Lacan]]'s [[work]], and because it constitutes an important focus for [[feminist ]] approaches to [[Lacan]]'s [[Lacan|work]].

One of the basic presuppositions underlying In other [[Freudwords]]'s work is that just as , there are certain physical differences between men psychical characteristics that can be called '[[masculine]]' and women, so also there are psychical differences[[others]] that can be called '[[feminine]].'

In other wordsRather than trying to give any [[formal]] definition of these [[terms]], there are certain [[Freud]] limits himself to describing how a [[human]] [[subject]] comes to acquire [[masculine]] or [[feminine]] psychical characteristics that can be called 'masculine' and others that can be called 'feminine.'

Rather than trying to give any formal definition of these termsThis is not an [[instinct]]ual or [[nature|natural]] [[process]], Freud limits himself to describing how but a human subject comes to acquire masculine or feminine complex one in which [[anatomical]] differences interact with [[social]] and psychical characteristicsfactors.

This is not an instinctual or natural process, but a complex one in which anatomical differences interact with social and psychical factors. The [[whole ]] process revolves around the [[castration complex]], in which the [[masculinity|boy ]] fears [[being ]] deprived of his [[penis ]] and the [[femininity|girl]], assuming that she has already been deprived of hers, develops [[penis envy]].

Following [[Freud]], [[Lacan]] also engages with the problem of how the human [[infant ]] becomes a [[sexed subject]].

For [[Lacan]], [[masculinity ]] and [[feminityfemininity]] are not [[biological]] essences but [[symbolic positionsposition]]s, and the assumption of one of these two positions is fundamental to the [[construction ]] of [[subjectivity]]; the [[subject]] is essentially a [[sexed subject]].

"[[Man]]" and "[[woman]]" are signifiers [[signifier]]s that stand for these two [[subjective positionsposition]]s.<ref>{{S20}} p.34</ref>

For both [[Freud]] and [[Lacan]], the child is at first ignorant of [[sexual difference]] and so cannot take up a sexual position. It is only when the child discovers [[sexual difference]] in the [[castration complex]] that he can begin to take up a sexual position. Both [[Freud]] and [[Lacan]] see this process of taking up a sexual position as closely connected with the [[Oedipus complex]], but they differ on the precise nature of the connection. For [[Freud]], the [[subject]]'s sexual position is determined by the sex of the parent with whom the subject identifies in the [[Oedipus complex]] (if the subject identifies with the father, he takes up a masculine position; identification with the mother entails the assumption of a feminine position).

For Both [[Freud]] and [[Lacan]], however, see this process of taking up a [[sexual]] position as closely connected with the [[Oedipus complex]] always involves a symbolic identification with , but they differ on the precise [[Fathernature]], and hence Oedipus identification cannot determine sexual positionof the connection.

According to For [[LacanFreud]], then, it is not identification but the [[subject]]'s relationship [[sexual position]] is determined by the sex of the parent with whom the [[phallussubject]] which determines sexual [[identifies]] in the [[Oedipus complex]] (if the [[subject]] [[identifies]] with the [[father]], he takes up a [[masculine]] [[position]]; [[identification]] with the [[mother]] entails the assumption of a [[feminine]] [[position]]).

This relationship can either be one of "having" or "not having"; men have the symbolic phallus, and women don't (orAccording to [[Lacan]], to be more precisethen, men are "it is not without having it" [[identification]] but the [[subject]]''ils ne sont pas sans l'avoir''s [[relationship]] with the [[phallus]] which determines [[sexual position]]).

The assumption of a sexual position is fundamentall a symbolic act, and ==="Having" or "Not Having" the difference between the sexes Phallus===This relationship can only either be conceived one of on "having" or "not having"; [[men]] have the [[symbolic plane.<ref>{{S4}} p]] [[phallus]], and [[women]] don't (or, to be more precise, [[men]] are "not without having it" [''ils ne sont pas sans l'avoir'']).153</ref>

<blockquote>It is insofar as the function The assumption of man and woman a sexual position is symbolizedfundamental a symbolic act, it is insofar as it's literally uprooted from and the domain of [[difference]] between the imaginary and situated in the domain sexes can only be conceived of on [[the symbolic, that any normal, completed sexual position is realized]] plane.<ref>{{S3S4}} p.177153</ref></blockquote>

==="Am I a man or a woman?"===However, there is no [[signifier]] of [[sexual difference]] as such which would permit the [[subject]] to fully [[symbolize]] the function of [[man]] and [[woman]], and hence it is [[impossible ]] to attain a fully "normal, finished sexual position."

The [[subject]]'s sexual [[identity ]] is thus always a rather precarious matter, a source of perpetual [[self]]-questioning.

The mysterious "other sex" is always the [[woman]], for both men and women, and therefore the question of the [[hysteric]] ("What is a woman?") is the same for both male and female [[hysterics]].

Although There is a rupture between the anatomy/[[biologybiological]] aspect of the [[subjectsexual difference]] plays a part in (for example at the question level of the chromosomes) which sexual position is related to the [[reproductive]] function of sexuality, and the [[subjectunconscious]] will take up, it in which this reproductive function is a fundamental axiom in psychoanalytic theory that anatomy does not determine sexual positionrepresented.

There is a rupture between Given the biological aspect of non-[[sexual differencerepresentation]] (for example at the level of the chromosomes) which is related to the reproductive function of sexuality, and in the [[unconscious]], "in the pysche there is [[nothing]] by which this reproductive function is not representedthe subject may situate himself as a male or female being."<ref>{{S11}} p.204</ref>

Given the non-representation of the reproductive function of sexuality in the There is no [[unconscioussignifier]], "in the pysche there is nothing by which the subject may situate himself as a male or female being."<ref>{{S11}} p.204</ref> There is no signifier of [[sexual difference]] in the [[symbolic order]].

<blockquote>"Strictly [[speaking ]] there is no [[symbolization ]] of woman's sex as such... the phallus is a symbol to which there is no correspondent, no equivalent. It's a matter of a dissymetry in the signifier."<ref>{{S3}} p.176</ref> Hence the [[phallus]] is "the pivot which completes ''in both sexes'' the questioning of their sex by the castration complex."<ref>{{E}} p.198</ref> --  It is this fundamental dissymetry in the [[signifer]] which leads to the dissymmetry between the [[Oedipus complex]] in men and women. Whereas the male subject desires the parent of the other sex and identifies with the parent of the same sex, the female subject desires the parent of the same sex and "is required to take the image of the other sex as the basis of its identification."<ref>{{S3}} p.176</ref> <blockquote>"For a woman the realization of her sex is not accomplished in the Oedipus complex in a way symmetrical to that of the man's, not by identification with the mother, but on the contrary by identifcation with the paternal object, which assgns her an extra detour."<ref>{{S3}} p.172</ref></blockquote> <blockquote>"This signifying dissymmetry determines the paths down which the OEdipus complex will pass. The two paths make them both pass down the same trail - the trail of castration."<ref>{{S3}} p.176</ref></blockquote> -- If, then, there is no symbol for the opposition masculine-feminine as such, the only way to udnerstand [[sexual different]] is in terms of the opposition activity-passivity.<ref>{{S11}} p.192</ref> This polarity is the only way in which the opposition male-female is represented in the psyche, since the biological function of sexuality (reproduction) is not represented.<ref>{{S11}} p.204</ref> This is why the question of what one is to do as a man or a woman is a drama which is situated entirely in the field of the Other,<ref>{{S11}} p.204</ref> which is to say that the subject can only realize his sexuality on the symbolic level.<ref>{{S3}} p.170</ref> -- [[Image:DIAGRAM.jpg|right|[[Sexual Difference|The diagram of sexual difference]]]] In the [[seminars|seminar]] of [[chronology|1970-1]] [[Jacques Lacan]] tries to [[formalize]] his [[sexual difference|theory of sexual difference]] by means of [[mathemes|formulae]] derived from [[symbolic]] [[logic]].

The diagram is divided into two sides: on Hence the left, [[formulae of sexuation|the male sidephallus]], and on is "the pivot which completes ''in both sexes'' the questioning of their sex by the right, [[formulae of sexuation|the female sidecastration]]complex."<ref>{{E}} p. 198</ref>

The ===Dyammetry between Men and Woman===It is this fundamental dissymmetry in the [[formulae of sexuationsignifier]] appear at which leads to the top of dissymmetry between the diagram[[Oedipus complex]] in men and women.

Thus the formulae on Whereas the [[male side are ]] [[Image:form1.jpgsubject]] [[desire]] (= there is at least one x which is not submitted to s the parent of the phallic function) other sex and [[Image:form3.jpgidentifies]] (= for all xwith the parent of the same sex, the phallic funciton [[female]] [[subject]] [[desire]]s the parent of the same sex and "is valid)required to take the [[image]] of the other sex as the basis of its identification."<ref>{{S3}} p.176</ref>

The last formula illustrates <blockquote>"For a woman the relationship realization of her sex is not accomplished in the Oedipus complex in a way symmetrical to that of the man's, not by identification with the mother, but on the contrary by identification with the paternal [[womanobject]] to the logic of the not-all, which assigns her an extra detour."<ref>{{S3}} p.172</ref></blockquote>

What is most striking is that <blockquote>"This signifying dissymmetry determines the paths down which the Oedipus complex will [[pass]]. The two propositions on each side paths make [[them]] both pass down the same trail - the trail of the diagram seem to contradict each other:castration."<ref>{{S3}} p.176</ref></blockquote>

<blockquote>"Each side is defined by both an affirmation and a negation of the phallic funciton, an inclusion and exclusion of absolute (non===Opposition Masculine-phallic) ''jouissance''."<ref>Copjec. 1994. p.24</ref></blockquote>Feminine=== HoweverIf, then, there is no symmetry between [[symbol]] for the two sides (no opposition [[masculine]]-[[feminine]] as such, the only way to [[understand]] [[sexual relationship); eahc side represents a radically different way difference]] is in which terms of the opposition [[activity]]-[sexual relationship[passivity]] can misfire.<ref>{{S20S11}} p.53-4192</ref>

||* [[Sexuality]] * [[Sexual Relationship]]{{Also}}

</div># [[Freud|Freud, Sigmund]]. (1908c). On the sexual theories of [[children]]. SE, 9: 205-226.# ——. (1923e). The [[infantile ]] [[genital ]] organization (An interpolation into the theory of sexuality). SE, 19: 141-145.# [[Lacan, Jacques]]. (1966). "''La [[signification ]] du phallus (Die [[Bedeutung ]] des Phallus)''." [[Écrits, ]]. 685-695. [[Paris]]: Le Seuil. (Original work published 1958)