[[symbolic]] phallusthe concludes that, by articulating this with phallocentrism, Lacan has created a phallogocentric system of thought.
The phallus has no corresponding 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 male and female subjects assume their sex via the [[Symbolic]] phallus.
Unlike the [[Imaginary]] phallus, the [[Symbolic]] phallus cannot be negated, for on the [[Symbolic]] plane an absence is just as much a positive entity as a presence.<ref>see E, 320</ref>
Thus even the [[Woman]], who lacks the [[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, 153</ref>
Conversely, the assumption of the [[Symbolic]] phallus by the man is only possible on the basis of the prior assumption of his own castration.
