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"[[castration complex]]" ([[Fr]]. ''[[complexe de castration]]'')
==Definition==
===Sigmund Freud===
====Infantile Theory====
[[Freud]] first described the [[castration complex]] in 1908, arguing that the [[child]], on discovering the anatomical difference between the sexes (the [[presence]] or [[absence]] of the [[penis]]), makes the assumption that this difference is due to the [[female]]'s [[penis]] having been cut off.<ref>{{F}} "On the Sexual Theories of Children. 1908. SE IX. p.207</ref>
The [[castration complex]] is thus the moment when one infantile theory (everyone has a [[penis]]) is replaced by a new one ([[female]]s have been castrated).
The consequences of this new infantile theory are different in the [[boy]] and in the [[girl]].
The [[boy]] fears that his own [[penis]] will be cut off by the [[father]] ([[castration]] [[anxiety]]), while the [[girl]] sees herself as already castrated (by the [[mother]]) and attempts to deny this or to compensate for it by seeking a [[child]] as a substitute for the [[penis]] ([[penis envy]]).
====Phallic Phase====
The castration complex affects both sexes because its appearance is closely linked with the [[phallic phase]], a moment of psychosexual [[development]] when the child, whether boy or girl, knows only one genital organ - the male one.
This phase is also known as the infantile genital organisation because it is the first moment when the partial drives are unified under the primacy of the genital organs.
It thus anticipates the genital organisation proper which arises at puberty, when the subject is aware of both the male and the female sexual organs.<ref>{{F}} "The Infantile Genital Organization." 1923. SE XIX. p.141</ref>
====Oedipus Complex====
Freud argued that the castration complex is closely linked to the [[Oedipus Complex]], but that its role in the Oedipus complex is different for the boy and the girl.
In the case of the boy, the castration complex is the point of exit from the Oedipus complex, its terminal crisis; because of his fear of castration (often aroused by a threat) the boy renounces his [[desire]] for the mother and thus enters the [[latency period]].
In the case of the girl, the castration complex is the point of entry into the Oedipus complex; it is her resentment of the mother, whom she blames for depriving her of the penis, that causes her to redirect her [[libido|libidinal]] desires away from the mother and onto the father.
Because of this difference, in the case of the girl the Oedipus complex has no definitive terminal crisis comparable to the boy's.<ref>{{F}} "The Dissolution of the Oedipus Complex." 1924. SE XIX p.173</ref>
====Conclusion====
Freud came to see the castration complex as a universal phenomenon, one which is rooted in a basic 'rejection of femininity' (Ablehnung der Weiblich-keit).
It is encountered in every subject, and represents the ultimate limit beyond which psychoanalytic treatment cannot go.<ref>{{F}} "Analysis Terminable and Interminable." 1937. SE XXIII. p.211</ref>
==Jacques Lacan==
== Lacan ==
Lacan, who talks more often about '[[castration]]' than 'the castration complex', does not discuss the castration complex very much in his early work.
He dedicates a few paragraphs to it in his article on the family, where he follows Freud in stating that castration is first and foremost a [[fantasy]] of the mutilation of the penis.
Lacan links this fantasy with a whole series of fantasies of bodily dismemberment which originate in the [[image]] of the [[fragmented body]]; this image is contemporary with the [[mirror stage]] (six to eighteen months), and it is only much later that these fantasies of dismemberment coalesce around the specific fantasy of castration.<ref>{{L}} 1938. p.44</ref>
It is not until the mid-1950s that the castration complex comes to play a prominent role in Lacan's teaching, primarily in [[the seminar of 1956-7]].
It is in this seminar that Lacan identifies castration as one of three forms of '[[lack]] of [[object]]', the others being [[frustration]] and [[privation]].
Unlike frustration (which is an imaginary lack of a real object) and privation (which is a real lack of a symbolic object), castration is defined by Lacan as a [[symbolic]] lack of an imaginary object; castration does not bear on the penis as a real organ, but on the [[imaginary]] [[phallus]].<ref>{{S4}} p.219</ref>
Lacan's account of the castration complex is thus raised out of the dimension of simple [[biology]] or anatomy: 'It is insoluble by any reduction to biological givens.'<ref>{{E}} p.282</ref>
Following Freud, Lacan argues that the castration complex is the pivot on which the whole Oedipus complex turns.<ref>{{S4}} p.216</ref>
However, whereas Freud argues that these two complexes are articulated differently in boys and girls, Lacan argues that the castration complex always denotes the final moment of the Oedipus complex in both sexes.
Lacan divides the Oedipus complex into three 'times'.<ref>{{S5}}; seminar of 22 January 1958</ref>
# In the first time, the child perceives that the [[mother]] desires something beyond the child himself - namely, the [[imaginary]] [[phallus]] - and then tries to be the phallus for the mother (see [[preoedipal phase]]).
# In the second time, the [[imaginary]] [[father]] intervenes to deprive the mother of her object by promulgating the [[incest taboo]]; properly speaking, this is not castration but [[privation]].
# Castration is only realised in the third and final time, which represents the 'dissolution' of the Oedipus complex.
It is then that the [[real]] [[father]] intervenes by showing that he really posesses the [[phallus]], in such a way that the child is forced to abandon his attempts to be the phallus.<ref>{{S4}} p.208-9, 227</ref>
===Two Operations===
From this account of the Oedipus complex, it is clear that Lacan uses the term 'castration' to refer to two different operations:
====Castration of the Mother====
In the first time of the Oedipus complex, "the mother is considered, by both sexes, as possessing the phallus, as the phallic mother."<ref>{{E}} p.282</ref>
By promulgating the incest taboo in the second time, the imaginary father is seen to deprive her of this phallus.
Lacan argues that properly speaking, this is not castration but privation.
However, Lacan himself often uses these terms interchangeably, speaking both of the privation of the mother and of her castration.
====Castration of the Subject====
This is castration proper, in the sense of being a symbolic act which bears on an imaginary object.
Whereas the castration/privation of the mother which comes about in the second time of the Oedipus complex negates the verb 'to have' (the mother does not have the phallus), the castration of the subject in the third time of the Oedipus complex negates the verb 'to be' (the subject must renounce his attempts to be the phallus for the mother).
In renouncing his attempts to be the object of the mother's desire, the subject gives up a certain ''[[jouissance]]'' which is never regained despite all attempts to do so; 'Castration means that ''jouissance'' must be refused so that it can be reached on the inverted ladder (''l'èchelle renversè'') of the [[Law]] of [[desire]].'<ref>{{E}} 324</ref>
This applies equally to boys and girls: this 'relationship to the phallus . . . is established without regard to the anatomical difference of the sexes.'<ref>{{E}} p.282</ref>
On a more fundamental level, the term castration may also refer not to an 'operation' (the result of an intervention by the imaginary or real father) but to a state of lack which already exists in the mother prior to the subject's birth.
This lack is evident in her own desire, which the subject perceives as a desire for the imaginary phallus.
That is, the subject realises at a very early stage that the mother is not complete and self-sufficient in herself, nor fully satisfied with her child (the subject himself), but desires something else.
This is the subject's first perception that the Other is not complete but lacking.
===Normalizing Effect===
Both forms of castration (of the mother and of the subject) present the subject with a choice: to accept castration or to deny it.
Lacan argues that it is only by accepting (or 'assuming') castration that the subject can reach a degree of psychic normality.
In other words, the assumption of castration has a 'normalising effect'.
This normalising effect is to be understood in terms of both [[psychopathology]] (clinical structures and symptoms) and [[sexual identity]].
====Castration and Clinical Structures====
It is the refusal of castration that lies at the root of all psychopathological structures.
However, since it is impossible to accept castration entirely, a completely 'normal' position is never achieved.
The closest to such a position is the [[neurosis|neurotic]] [[structure]], but even here the subject still defends himself against the lack in the [[Other]] by repressing awareness of castration.
This prevents the neurotic from fully assuming his desire, since 'it is the assumption of castration that creates the lack upon which desire is instituted.'<ref>{{Ec}} p.852</ref>
A more radical defence against castration than [[repression]] is [[disavowal]], which is at the root of the [[perversion|perverse]] [[structure]].
The [[psychotic]] takes the most extreme path of all; he completely repudiates castration, as if it had never existed.<ref>{{S1}} 53</ref>
This repudiation of symbolic castration leads to the return of castration in the real, such as in the form of [[hallucinations]] of dismemberment (as in the case of the [[Wolf Man]]) or even self-mutilation of the real genital organs.
====Castration and Sexual Identity====
It is only by assuming castration (in both senses) that the subject can take up a sexual position as a man or a woman (see [[sexual difference]].
The different modalities of refusing castration find expression in the various forms of [[perversion]].
==See Also==
* [[Oedipus complex]]
* [[Penis]]
* [[Phallus]]
==References==
<references/>
[[Category:Jacques Lacan]]
[[Category:Terms]]
[[Category:Dictionary]]
[[Category:Treatment]]
[[Category:Practice]]
[[Category:Concepts]]
[[Category:Psychoanalysis]]
