Phallicmonismis a term introduced byChasseguet-Smirgel[1]to refer to the theory that in both sexes the male organ—i.e. the question of possessing the penis or not—was the key topsychosexual development.[2]
The theory was upheld bySigmund Freud.His critics maintain it was a result of an unconscious adherence to an infantile sexual theory.[3]
Freud
editFreud identified as the central theme of thephallic stagea state of mind in which "malenessexists, but not femaleness. The antithesis here is between havinga male genitaland being castrated ".[4]He believed that the mind-set was shared both by little boys and little girls[5]—a viewpoint shared by the orthodox strand of his following, as epitomised for example in the work ofOtto Fenichel.[6]
Freud considered such phallic monism to be at the core of neurosis to the very end of his career.[7]
Critics
editTrenchant early criticism of Freud's monism was made byKaren Horney,who suggested that the psychoanalytic view had itself become fixated at the level of the small boy aggrandising himself at his sister's expense.[8]Ernest Jonestoo was quick to maintain that woman was not, as Freud seemed to suggest, "un homme manqué...struggling to console herself with secondary substitutes alien to her true nature ".[9]
Jacques Lacanreformulated Freud's phallic monism through his theory of the phallus as signifier;[10]butKleinians,post-Kleinians, and those influenced bysecond-wave feminismhave all articulated a more positive view of femininity, articulating the belief in phallic monism as a survival into adulthood of a (male) infantile sexual theory.[11]
Phallic monism has also been linked tosexual fetishism,fueled by an over-aggressivesuper-ego.[12]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^Nancy ChodorowGender and Sexuality(2012) p. 81
- ^J.-M. Quinodoz,Reading Freud(2005) p. 64
- ^Quinodoz, p. 81
- ^Sigmund Freud,On Sexuality(PFL 7) p. 312
- ^On Sexuality,pp. 320-1
- ^Otto Fenichel,The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis(1946) p. 79-80
- ^Quinodoz, p. 260
- ^Peter Gay,Freud(1989) p. 520-1
- ^Quoted in Adam Phillips,On Flirtation(1994) p. 116
- ^Quinodoz, p. 182
- ^Quinodoz, p. 181-2 and p. 81
- ^Alan Bass,Difference and Disavowal(2000) p. 31-2 and p. 203-4
Further reading
edit- D. Breen,The Gender Conundrum(1993)
- Harold P. Blum,Female Psychology(1977)
External links
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