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Castration anxiety is an overwhelming fear of damage to, or loss of, the penis—a derivative of Sigmund Freud's theory of the castration complex, one of his earliest psychoanalytic theories. [1] The term refers to the fear of emasculation in both a literal and metaphorical sense. Freud regarded castration anxiety as a universal human experience.
The castration complex is a concept developed by Sigmund Freud, first presented in 1908, [1] initially as part of his theorisation of the transition in early childhood development from the polymorphous perversity of infantile sexuality to the ‘infantile genital organisation’ which forms the basis for adult sexuality.
The sections on the sexual theories of children and on pregenitality only appeared in 1915, for example, [13] while such central terms as castration complex or penis envy were also later additions. [14]
Penis envy stems from Freud's concept of the Oedipus complex in which the phallic conflict arises for males, as well as for females. [8] [9] Though Carl Jung made the distinction between the Oedipus complex for males and the Electra complex for females in his work The Theory of Psychoanalysis, [10] Freud rejected this latter term, stating that the feminine Oedipus complex is not the same as ...
Freud's ideas of castration anxiety and penis envy refer to the differences of the sexes in their experience of the Oedipus complex. [4] The complex is thought to persist into adulthood as an unconscious psychic structure which can assist in social adaptation but also be the cause of neurosis .
Freud argued further that, because displaying the genitals (male and female) can be an apotropaic act - one aimed at intimidating and driving off the spectator [6] - so too was the defensive use of Medusa's head in classical Greece.
In cultures that discuss the male genitalia as a singular unit, the phenomenon of castration anxiety may overlap with phallophobia from a linguistic standpoint. [19] Although usually referring to ordinary erections, the term has also been used in toxicological and therapeutic contexts.
The castration complex is formed when the child discovers that this other is not complete because there is a "lack (manque)" in the other. This means that there is always a signifier missing from the trove of signifiers constituted by the other.