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Sexual Difference
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. In his view, the castration complex is the moment when one "infantile theory" -- that every human being has a penis -- is replaced by a new one -- that females 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. These unconscious representations, in phantasy, cover over the lack at the heart of being in the Other and allow the subject to imagine (feel) as though they are special or fulfilled (not lacking). Fear of psychic castration is thus met with a phantasy which positions the subject as not lacking which props up the ego as being of central importance.

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.

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 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.

Castration Complex
The castration complex is a concept developed by Sigmund Freud, first presented in 1908, 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 trauma induced by the child’s discovery of anatomical difference between the sexes (presence or absence of the penis) gives rise to the fantasy of female emasculation or castration.

Phallic stage
According to Freud the early stages of the child’s psychosexual development are characterised by polymorphous perversity and a bisexual disposition, and are the same for both sexes. Up to and including the phallic stage of this development the penis and clitoris are the leading erogenous zones. Once the castration complex is initiated with the child’s discovery and puzzlement over the anatomical difference between the sexes (presence or absence of the penis), it makes the assumption that this difference is due to the female's penis having been cut off or mutilated. The libidinal equivalence of penis/clitoris, based on the recognition by the child of only one genital organ, gives way to the fantasy that females have been castrated. This entails a legacy of castration anxiety for the boy and penis envy for the girl.

Oedipus Complex
Freud argued that the castration complex is closely linked to the Oedipus Complex, especially with the its prohibitive and normative function. The structure and consequences of the castration complex are different in the boy and in the girl, terminating the Oedipus Complex for the boy, initiating it for the girl. For the boy, anatomical difference (the possession of a penis), induces castration anxiety as a result of an assumed paternal threat made in response to his sexual activities. In the case of the girl the absence of a penis is experienced as a deprivation, a wrong suffered which she attempts to deny, remedy or compensate for by seeking to have her own child. Accordingly the girl’s castration complex effects the redirection of her libidinal desires toward the father and away from the mother, whom she resents for depriving her of the penis, and the concomitant displacement of the clitoris  by the vagina as the leading erogenous zone.

Primal phantasy
In his later work Freud includes the castration complex in the category of primal phantasies that are universal in their derivation from the incest taboo, the necessary founding condition for all human social and cultural formations. As such they have their effects independently of the individual subject's specific cultural setting.

Feminist critique
Freud's account of the feminine castration complex and penis envy came under criticism from his psychoanaytic colleagues in the 1920s. Karen Horney argued that penis envy was a defensive formation rather than arising from the fact, or "injury", of biological asymmetry as Freud held. Horney had the influential support of Melanie Klein and Ernest Jones who coined the term "phallocentrism" in his critique of Freud's position.

In addressing this critique, feminist scholar Jacqueline Rose has argued that Freud moved from a description of the little girl stuck with her 'inferiority' or 'injury' in the face of the anatomy of the little boy to an account in his later work which explicitly describes the process of becoming 'feminine' as an 'injury' or 'catastrophe' for the complexity of her earlier psychic and sexual life.

Castration
Castration anxiety is the fear of emasculation in both the literal and metaphorical sense. Castration anxiety is an overwhelming fear of damage to, or loss of, the penis—one of Sigmund Freud's earliest psychoanalytic theories. Although Freud regarded castration anxiety as a universal human experience, few empirical studies have been conducted on the topic. The theory is that a child has a fear of damage being done to their genitalia by the parent of the same sex (e.g., a son fearing his father) as punishment for sexual feelings toward the parent of the opposite sex (e.g., a son desiring his mother). It has been theorized that castration anxiety begins between the ages of 3 and 5, otherwise known as the phallic stage of development according to Freud. Although typically associated with males, castration anxiety is theorized to be experienced in differing ways for both the male and female sexes.

Literal
Castration anxiety is the conscious or unconscious fear of losing all or part of the sex organs, or the function of such. In the literal sense, castration anxiety refers to the fear of having one's genitalia disfigured or removed to punish sexual desires of a child.

In Freudian psychoanalysis, castration anxiety (Kastrationsangst) refers to an unconscious fear of penile loss originating during the phallic stage of psychosexual development and lasting a lifetime. According to Freud, when the infantile male becomes aware of differences between male and female genitalia he assumes that the female's penis has been removed and becomes anxious that his penis will be cut off by his rival, the father figure, as punishment for desiring the mother figure.

In 19th-century Europe, it was not unheard of for parents to threaten their misbehaving sons with castration or otherwise threaten their genitals. This theme is explored in the story Tupik by French writer Michel Tournier in his collection of stories entitled Le Coq de Bruyère (1978) and is a phenomenon Freud documents several times. In this same period, Dr. Kellogg and others in America and English-speaking countries offered to Victorian parents circumcision and, in grave instances, castration of their boys and girls as a terminal cure and punishment for a wide variety of perceived misbehaviours (such as masturbation), a practice that became widely used at the time.

Metaphorical
Castration anxiety can also refer to being castrated symbolically. In the metaphorical sense, castration anxiety refers to the idea of feeling or being insignificant; there is a need to keep one's self from being dominated; whether it be socially or in a relationship. Symbolic castration anxiety refers to the fear of being degraded, dominated or made insignificant, usually an irrational fear where the person will go to extreme lengths to save their pride and/or perceives trivial things as being degrading making their anxiety restrictive and sometimes damaging. This can also tie in with literal castration anxiety in fearing the loss of virility or sexual dominance.

Relation to power and control
According to Freudian psychoanalysis, castration anxiety can be completely overwhelming to the individual, often breaching other aspects of his or her life. A link has been found between castration anxiety and fear of death. Although differing degrees of anxiety are common, young men who felt the most threatened in their youth tended to show chronic anxiety. Because the consequences are extreme, the fear can evolve from potential disfigurement to life-threatening situations. Essentially, castration anxiety can lead to a fear of death, and a feeling of loss of control over one's life.

To feel so powerless can be detrimental to an individual's mental health. One of the most concerning problems with all of this is the idea that the individual does not recognize that their sexual desires are the cause of the emotional distress. Because of unconscious thoughts, as theorized in the ideas of psychoanalysis, the anxiety is brought to the surface where it is experienced symbolically. This will lead to the fear associated with bodily injury in castration anxiety, which can then lead to the fear of dying or being killed.

Relation to circumcision
Freud had a strongly critical view of circumcision, believing it to be a 'substitute for castration', and an 'expression of submission to the father's will'. This view was shared by others in the psychoanalytic community, such as Wilhelm Reich, Hermann Nunberg, and Jaques Lacan, who stated that there is "nothing less castrating than circumcision!"

Themes central to castration anxiety that feature prominently in circumcision include pain, fear, loss of control (with the child's forced restraint, and in the psychological effects of the event, which may include sensation seeking, and lower emotional stability ) and the perception that the event is a form of punishment.

The ritual's origination as a result of Oedipal conflict was tested by examining 111 societies, finding that circumcision is likely to be found in societies in which the son sleeps in the mother's bed during the nursing period in bodily contact with her, and/or the father sleeps in a different hut.

A study of the procedure without anaesthesia on children in Turkey found 'each child looked at his penis immediately after the circumcision 'as if to make sure that all was not cut off'. Another study of 60 males subject to communal circumcision ceremonies in Turkey found that 21.5% of them "remembered that they were specifically afraid that their penis might or would be cut off entirely," while 'specific fears of castration' occurred in 28% of the village-reared men. Fear of the authoritarian father increased considerably in 12 children.

Psychoanalytic interpretation of Biblical stories shows themes of castration anxiety present in Judaic mythology concerning circumcision.

The figure of Lilith, described as "a hot fiery female who first cohabited with man " presents as an archetypal representation of the first mother of man, and primordial sexual temptation. Male children were said to be at risk of Lilith’s wrath for eight days after birth. Deceiving Lilith into believing newborn babies were a girl – letting the boy’s hair grow and even dressing him in girl clothes – were said to be the most effective means to avoid her harm, until they were ritually circumcised on the eighth day of life as part of a covenant with God.

The figure of Judith, depicted both as "a type of the praying Virgin... who tramples Satan and harrows Hell," and also as "seducer-assassin" archetypically reflects the dichotomous themes presented by castration anxiety and circumcision: sexual purity, chastity, violence, and eroticism. Judith defeats Assyrian General, Holofernes by cutting his head off – decapitation being an act that Freud equated with castration in his essay, "Medusa's Head".

Counterpart in females
It is implied in Freudian psychology that both girls and boys pass through the same developmental stages: oral, anal, and phallic stages. Freud, however, believed that the results may be different because the anatomy of the different sexes is different.

The counterpart of castration anxiety for females is penis envy. Penis envy, and the concept of such, was first introduced by Freud in an article published in 1908 titled "On the Sexual Theories of Children". The idea was presumed that females/girls envied those (mostly their fathers) with a penis because theirs was taken from them—essentially they were already "castrated". Freud entertained that the envy they experienced was their unconscious wish to be like a boy and to have a penis.

Penis envy, in Freudian psychology, refers to the reaction of the female/young girl during development when she realizes that she does not possess a penis. According to Freud, this was a major development in the identity (gender and sexual) of the girl. The contemporary culture assumes that penis envy is the woman wishing they were in fact a man. This is unrelated to the notion of "small penis syndrome" which is the assumption by the man that his penis is too small. According to Freud's beliefs, girls developed a weaker superego, which he considered a consequence of penis envy.

Among his many suggestions, Freud believed that during the phallic stage, young girls distance themselves from their mothers and instead envy their fathers and show this envy by showing love and affection towards their fathers. According to Cohler and Galatzer, Freud believed that all of the concepts related to penis envy were among his greatest accomplishments. However, these are also his most criticized theories as well—most famously by Karen Horney.

Empirical testing
Sarnoff et al. surmised that men differ in their degree of castration anxiety through the castration threat they experienced in childhood. Therefore, these men may be expected to respond in different ways to different degrees of castration anxiety that they experience from the same sexually arousing stimulus. The experimenters aimed to demonstrate that in the absence of a particular stimulus, men who were severely threatened with castration, as children, might experience long-lasting anxiety. The researchers claimed that this anxiety is from the repressed desires for sexual contact with women. It was thought that these desires are trying to reach the men's consciousness. The experimenters deduced that unconscious anxiety of being castrated might come from the fear the consciousness has of bodily injury. The researchers concluded that individuals who are in excellent health and who have never experienced any serious accident or illness may be obsessed by gruesome and relentless fears of dying or of being killed.

In another article related to castration anxiety, Hall et al. investigated whether sex differences would be found in the manifestations of castration anxiety in their subject's dreams. The researchers hypothesized that male dreamers would report more dreams that would express their fear of castration anxiety instead of dreams involving castration wish and penis envy. They further hypothesized that women will have a reversed affect, that is, female dreamers will report more dreams containing fear of castration wish and penis envy than dreams including castration anxiety. The results demonstrated that many more women than men dreamt about babies and weddings and that men had more dreams about castration anxiety than women.