Chapter 2 Freud: Psychoanalysis 47instigate the castration complex. Castration anxiety bursts forth only when the
boy’s ego is mature enough to comprehend the connection between sexual desires
and the removal of the penis.
Freud believed that castration anxiety was present in all boys, even those not
personally threatened with the removal of their penis or the stunting of its growth.
According to Freud (1933/1964), a boy does not need to receive a clear threat of
castration. Any mention of injury or shrinkage in connection with the penis is suf-
ficient to activate the child’s phylogenetic endowment. Phylogenetic endowment is
capable of filling the gaps of our individual experiences with the inherited experi-
ences of our ancestors. Ancient man’s fear of castration supports the individual
child’s experiences and results in universal castration anxiety. Freud stated: “It is
not a question of whether castration is really carried out; what is decisive is that
the danger threatens from the outside and that the child believes in it.” He went
on to say that
hints at... punishment must regularly find a phylogenetic reinforcement in him.
It is our suspicion that during the human family’s primaeval period castration
used actually to be carried out by a jealous and cruel father upon growing boys,
and that circumcision, which so frequently plays a part in puberty rites among
primitive peoples, is a clearly recognizable relic of it. (pp. 86–87)Once his Oedipus complex is dissolved or repressed, the boy surrenders his
incestuous desires, changes them into feelings of tender love, and begins to develop
a primitive superego. He may identify with either the father or the mother, depend-
ing on the strength of his feminine disposition. Normally identification is with the
father, but it is not the same as pre-Oedipal identification. The boy no longer wants
to be his father; instead, he uses his father as a model for determining right and
wrong behavior. He introjects or incorporates his father’s authority into his own
ego, thereby sowing the seeds of a mature superego. The budding superego takes
over his father’s prohibitions against incest and ensures the continued repression
of the Oedipus complex (Freud, 1933/1964).
Female Oedipus Complex The phallic phase takes a more complicated path for
girls than for boys, and these differences are due to anatomical differences between
the sexes (Freud, 1925/1961). Like boys, pre-Oedipal girls assume that all other
children have genitals similar to their own. Soon they discover that boys not only
possess different genital equipment, but apparently something extra. Girls then
become envious of this appendage, feel cheated, and desire to have a penis. This
experience of penis envy is a powerful force in the formation of girls’ personality.
Unlike castration anxiety in boys, which is quickly repressed, penis envy may last
for years in one form or another. Freud (1933/1964) believed that penis envy is
often expressed as a wish to be a boy or a desire to have a man. Almost universally,
it is carried over into a wish to have a baby, and eventually it may find expression
in the act of giving birth to a baby, especially a boy.
Preceding the castration complex, a girl establishes an identification with her
mother similar to that developed by a boy; that is, she fantasizes being seduced by
her mother. These incestuous feelings, according to Freud (1933/1964), are later