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[[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. 1925.</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 [[femininity]] 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 It is only when the child discovers [[Freudsexual difference]] and [[Lacan]], in the child is at first ignorant of [[sexual differencecastration complex]] and so cannot that he can begin to take up a [[sexual position]].

It is only when the child discovers Both [[sexual differenceFreud]] in the and [[castration complexLacan]] that he can begin to take see this process of taking up a [[sexual ]] positionas closely connected with the [[Oedipus complex]], but they differ on the precise [[nature]] of the connection.

Both For [[Freud]] and , the [[Lacansubject]] see this process of taking up a 's [[sexual position as closely connected ]] is determined by the sex of the parent with whom the [[subject]] [[identifies]] in the [[Oedipus complex]] (if the [[subject]] [[identifies]] with the [[father]], but they differ on he takes up a [[masculine]] [[position]]; [[identification]] with the precise nature [[mother]] entails the assumption of the connectiona [[feminine]] [[position]]).

For [[FreudLacan]], however, the [[subjectOedipus complex]] always involves a [[symbolic]] [[identification]]'s sexual position is determined by the sex of the parent with whom the subject identifies in the [[Father]], and hence [[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 ]] cannot determine [[sexual position)]].

For [[Lacan]], however, the [[Oedipus complex]] always involves a symbolic identification with the [[Father]], and hence Oedipus identification cannot determine sexual position. According to [[Lacan]], then, it is not [[identification ]] but the [[subject]]'s [[relationship ]] with the [[phallus]] which determines [[sexual position]].

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

<blockquote>It is insofar as the function of man and woman is [[symbolized]], it is insofar as it's literally uprooted from the [[domain ]] of the [[imaginary ]] and situated in the domain of the symbolic, that any normal, completed sexual position is realized.<ref>{{S3}} p.177</ref></blockquote>

However, there is no [[signifier]] of [[sexual difference]] as such which would permit the The [[subject]] to fully [[symbolize]] the function of [[man]] and [[woman]], and hence it is impossible to attain a fully "normal, finished 's sexual position."  The [[subjectidentity]]'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></blockquote>

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 Whereas the [[signifiermale]] [[subject]] which leads to the dissymmetry between the [[Oedipus complexdesire]] in men and women. Whereas the male subject desires s the parent of the other sex and [[identifies ]] with the parent of the same sex, the [[female ]] [[subject desires ]] [[desire]]s 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 identification with the paternal [[object]], which assgns assigns 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 understand [[sexual difference]] 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> 

</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)