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Penis envy (German: Penisneid) is a stage theorized by Sigmund Freud regarding female psychosexual development^[1], in which young girls experience anxiety upon realization that they do not have a penis. Freud considered this realization a defining moment in a series of transitions toward a mature female sexuality and gender identity. In Freudian theory, the penis envy stage begins the transition from an attachment to the mother to competition with the mother for the attention, recognition and affection of the father.^[2] The parallel reaction of a boy's realization that women do not have a penis is castration anxiety.

Freud's theory on penis envy was criticized and debated by other psychoanalysts, such as Karen Horney, Ernest Jones, Helene Deutsch, and Melanie Klein, specifically on the treatment of penis envy as a fixed operation as opposed to a formation constructed or used in a secondary manner to fend off earlier wishes.^[3]

Freud's theory

Freud introduced his theory of the concept of interest in—and envy of—the penis in his 1908 article "On the Sexual Theories of Children":^[4] it was not mentioned in the first edition of Freud's earlier Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex (1905), but a synopsis of the 1908 article was added to the third edition in 1915.^[5] In On Narcissism (1914) he described how some women develop a masculine ideal as "a survival of the boyish nature that they themselves once possessed".^[6] The term grew in significance as Freud gradually refined his views of sexuality, coming to describe a mental process he believed occurred as one went from the phallic stage to the latency stage (see Psychosexual development).^[7]

Psychosexual development: child

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 the male Oedipus because, "It is only in the male child that we find the fateful combination of love for the one parent and simultaneous hatred of the other as a rival"^[11]. This development of the female Oedipus complex according to Freud begins when the female makes comparisons with another male, perceiving this not as a sex characteristic; but rather, by assuming that she had previously possessed a penis, and had lost it by castration. This leads to the essential difference between the male and female Oedipus complex that the female accepts castration as a fact, while the boy fears its happening.^[8]

The penis envy leads to:

Resentment towards the mother who failed to provide the daughter with a penis
Depreciation of the mother who appears to be castrated
Giving up on phallic activity (clitoral masturbation) and adopting passivity (vaginal intercourse)
A symbolic equivalence between penis and child^[9]

This envy towards the penis leads to various psychical consequences according to Freud, so long as it does not form into a reaction-formation of a masculinity complex. One such consequences is a sense of inferiority after becoming aware of the wound inflicted upon her narcissism. After initially attempting to explain this lack of a penis as a punishment towards her, she later realizes the universality of her female situation, and as a result begins to share the contempt that men have towards women as a lesser (in the important respect of a lack of a penis), and so insists upon being like a man. A second consequence of penis envy involves the formation of the character-trait of jealousy through displacement of the abandoned penis envy upon maturation.^[12] Freud concludes this from considering the common female phantasy of 'a child being beaten' to be a confession of masturbation, with the child representing the clitoris. A third consequence of penis envy involves the discovery of the inferiority of this clitoris, suggested through the observation that masturbation is further removed from females than from males. This is, according to Freud, because clitoral masturbation is a masculine activity that is slowly repressed throughout puberty (and shortly after discovering the penis-envy) in an attempt to make room for the female's femininity^[13] by transitioning the erotogenic zone from the clitoris to the vagina.^[9]

The result of these anxieties culminates in the girl giving up on her desire for the penis, and instead puts it in the place of the wish for a child; and with that goal in mind, she takes her father as the love-object and makes the mother into the object of her jealousy.^[14]

Psychosexual development: adult

Freud considered that in normal female development penis envy transformed into the wish for a man and/or a baby.^[15]

Karl Abraham differentiated two types of adult women in whom penis envy remained intense as the wish-fulfilling and the vindictive types:^[16] The former were dominated by fantasies of having or becoming a penis—as with the singing/dancing/performing women who felt that in their acts they magically incorporated the [parental] phallus.^[17] The latter sought revenge on the male through humiliation or deprivation (whether by removing the man from the penis or the penis from the man).^[18]

Criticisms of Freud's theory

Within psychoanalytic circles

Freud's theories regarding psychosexual development, and in particular the phallic stage, were early challenged by other psychoanalysts, such as Karen Horney, Otto Fenichel and Ernest Jones,^[19] though Freud did not accept their view of penis envy as a secondary, rather than a primary, female reaction.^[20] Later psychologists, such as Erik Erikson and Jean Piaget, challenged the Freudian model of child psychological development as a whole.

Jacques Lacan, however, took up and developed Freud's theory of the importance of what he called "penisneid in the unconscious of women"^[21] in linguistic terms, seeing what he called the phallus as the privileged signifier of humanity's subordination to language: "the phallus (by virtue of which the unconscious is language)".^[22] He thereby opened up a new field of debate around phallogocentrism^[23]—some figures like Juliet Mitchell endorsing a view of penis envy which "uses, not the man, but the phallus to which the man has to lay claim, as its key term",^[24] others strongly repudiating it.^[25]

Ernest Jones attempted to remedy Freud's initial theory penis envy by giving three alternative meanings:

The wish to acquire a penis, usually by swalling it and retaining it within the body, often converting it there into a baby
The wish to possess a penis in the clitoric region
The adult wish to enjoy a penis in intercourse^[3]

Feminist and sociological criticisms

In Freud's theory, the female sexual center shifts from the clitoris to the vagina during a heterosexual life event.^[11] Freud believed in a duality between how genders construct mature sexuality in terms of the opposite gender, whereas feminists reject the notion that female sexuality can only be defined in relation to the male. Feminists development theorists instead believe that the clitoris, not the vagina, is the mature center of female sexuality because it allows a construction of mature female sexuality independent of the penis.^{[citation needed]}

A significant number of feminists have been highly critical of penis envy theory ^{[citation needed]} as a concept and psychoanalysis as a discipline, arguing that the assumptions and approaches of the psychoanalytic project are profoundly patriarchal, anti-feminist, and misogynistic and represent women as broken or deficient men.^[19] Karen Horney—a German psychoanalyst who also placed great emphasis on childhood experiences in psychological development—was a particular advocate of this view. She asserted the concept of "womb envy", and saw "masculine narcissism"^[19] as underlying the mainstream Freudian view.

Some feminists argue that Freud's developmental theory is heteronormative and denies women a mature sexuality independent of men; they also criticize it for privileging the vagina over the clitoris as the center of women's sexuality. They criticize the sociosexual theory for privileging heterosexual sexual activity and penile penetration in defining women's "mature state of sexuality".^[19]^[25]^[26] Others claim that the concept explains how, in a patriarchal society, women might envy the power accorded to those with a phallus.^[19]^[25]^[27]

In her influential paper "Women and Penis Envy" (1943), Clara Thompson reformulated the latter as social envy for the trappings of the dominant gender,^[28] a sociological response to female subordination under patriarchy.^[29]

Betty Friedan referred to penis envy as a purely parasitic social bias typical of Victorianism and particularly of Freud's own biography, and showed how the concept played a key role in discrediting alternative notions of femininity in the early to mid twentieth century: "Because Freud's followers could only see woman in the image defined by Freud – inferior, childish, helpless, with no possibility of happiness unless she adjusted to being man's passive object – they wanted to help women get rid of their suppressed envy, their neurotic desire to be equal. They wanted to help women find sexual fulfilment as women, by affirming their natural inferiority".^[30]

A small but influential number of Feminist philosophers, working in Psychoanalytic feminism, and including Luce Irigaray, Julia Kristeva,^[26] and Hélène Cixous, have taken varying post-structuralist views on the question, inspired or at least challenged by figures such as Jacques Lacan and Jacques Derrida.^[23]

Juliet Mitchell in her early work attempted to reconcile Freud's thoughts on psychosexual development with Feminism and Marxism by declaring his theories to be simply observations of gender identity under capitalism.^{[citation needed]}

References

^ 1856-1939., Freud, Sigmund, (1975) [1962]. Three essays on the theory of sexuality. Strachey, James. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 0465097081. OCLC 2616954. {{cite book}}: |last= has numeric name (help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ Sigmund Freud, New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis (PFL 2) p. 158-163
^ ^a ^b Laplanche, Jean (1973). The language of psycho-analysis. Pontalis, J.-B. New York, New York: Norton. p. 304. ISBN 0393011054. OCLC 741058.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
^ Sigmund Freud, On Sexuality (PFL 7) p. 195-6
^ Freud, On Sexuality p. 112-4
^ Sigmund Freud, On Metapsychology (PFL 11) p. 83-4
^ Freud, On Sexuality p. 336-40
^ ^a ^b Freud, Sigmund (1989). The Freud reader. Gay, Peter (1st ed.). New York: W.W. Norton. pp. 664–665. ISBN 0393026868. OCLC 19125772.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
^ ^a ^b ^c Laplanche, Jean (1973). The language of psycho-analysis,. Pontalis, J.B. New York, New York: W.W. Norton. pp. 302–304. ISBN 0393011054. OCLC 741058.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
^ Jung, C. G. (1915). The theory of psychoanalysis. Nervous and Mental Disease Monograph Series no. 19.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) CS1 maint: location (link) CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^ ^a ^b Laplanche, Jean (1973). The language of psycho-analysis,. Pontalis, J.B. New York, New York: Norton. p. 152. ISBN 0393011054. OCLC 741058.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
^ Freud, Sigmund (1989). The Freud reader. Gay, Peter (1st ed.). New York: W.W. Norton. p. 674. ISBN 0393026868. OCLC 19125772.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
^ Freud, Sigmund (1989). The Freud Reader. Gay, Peter (1st ed.). New York: W.W. Norton. p. 675. ISBN 0393026868. OCLC 19125772.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
^ Freud, Sigmund (1989). The Freud reader. Gay, Peter (1st ed.). New York: W.W. Norton. p. 676. ISBN 0393026868. OCLC 19125772.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
^ Freud, On Sexuality p. 297-301
^ Fenichel, p. 494-5
^ Mary Jacobus, The Poetics of Psychoanalysis (2005) p. 29-30 and p. 6
^ David Cooper, The Death of the Family (1974) p. 152
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Peter Gay, Freud (1989) p. 520-2
^ Freud, On Sexuality p. 391-2
^ Jacques Lacan, Écrits: A Selection (1997) p. 281
^ Jacques Lacan, Écrits: A Selection (1997) p. 288
^ ^a ^b J. Childers/G. Hentzi, The Columbia Dictionary of Modern Literary and Cultural Criticism (1995) p. 224-6 and p. 39-40
^ Juliet Mitchell and Jacqueline Rose, Feminine Sexuality (1982) p. 7-8
^ ^a ^b ^c Jane Gallup, Feminism and Psychoanalysis (1982) p. 69 and p. 84
^ ^a ^b R. Appiganesi/C. Garratt, Postmodernism for Beginners (1995) p. 94-101
^ Elisabeth Young-Bruehl, ed., Freud and Women (1990) p. 304
^ Nancy Friday, Women on Top (1991) p. 420
^ G. Legman, Rationale of the Dirty Joke Vol I (1973) p. 332-3
^ Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique, 1963, p. 110.

External links

The dictionary definition of penis envy at Wiktionary
Works related to Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex at Wikisource
General Psychology: Sigmund Freud – 1920 translation by A.A. Brill, whose translations were often criticized as very imperfect
Colette Chiland, 'Penis Envy'
Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex by Sigmund Freud – Dr. C. George Boeree on Freud's theories

[1] 1856-1939., Freud, Sigmund, (1975) [1962]. Three essays on the theory of sexuality. Strachey, James. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 0465097081. OCLC 2616954. {{cite book}}: |last= has numeric name (help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

[2] Sigmund Freud, New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis (PFL 2) p. 158-163

[:0-3] Laplanche, Jean (1973). The language of psycho-analysis. Pontalis, J.-B. New York, New York: Norton. p. 304. ISBN 0393011054. OCLC 741058.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)

[4] Sigmund Freud, On Sexuality (PFL 7) p. 195-6

[5] Freud, On Sexuality p. 112-4

[6] Sigmund Freud, On Metapsychology (PFL 11) p. 83-4

[7] Freud, On Sexuality p. 336-40

[:1-8] Freud, Sigmund (1989). The Freud reader. Gay, Peter (1st ed.). New York: W.W. Norton. pp. 664–665. ISBN 0393026868. OCLC 19125772.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)

[:2-9] Laplanche, Jean (1973). The language of psycho-analysis,. Pontalis, J.B. New York, New York: W.W. Norton. pp. 302–304. ISBN 0393011054. OCLC 741058.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)

[10] Jung, C. G. (1915). The theory of psychoanalysis. Nervous and Mental Disease Monograph Series no. 19.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) CS1 maint: location (link) CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

[:3-11] Laplanche, Jean (1973). The language of psycho-analysis,. Pontalis, J.B. New York, New York: Norton. p. 152. ISBN 0393011054. OCLC 741058.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)

[12] Freud, Sigmund (1989). The Freud reader. Gay, Peter (1st ed.). New York: W.W. Norton. p. 674. ISBN 0393026868. OCLC 19125772.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)

[13] Freud, Sigmund (1989). The Freud Reader. Gay, Peter (1st ed.). New York: W.W. Norton. p. 675. ISBN 0393026868. OCLC 19125772.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)

[14] Freud, Sigmund (1989). The Freud reader. Gay, Peter (1st ed.). New York: W.W. Norton. p. 676. ISBN 0393026868. OCLC 19125772.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)

[15] Freud, On Sexuality p. 297-301

[16] Fenichel, p. 494-5

[17] Mary Jacobus, The Poetics of Psychoanalysis (2005) p. 29-30 and p. 6

[18] David Cooper, The Death of the Family (1974) p. 152

[:4-19] Peter Gay, Freud (1989) p. 520-2

[20] Freud, On Sexuality p. 391-2

[21] Jacques Lacan, Écrits: A Selection (1997) p. 281

[22] Jacques Lacan, Écrits: A Selection (1997) p. 288

[:5-23] J. Childers/G. Hentzi, The Columbia Dictionary of Modern Literary and Cultural Criticism (1995) p. 224-6 and p. 39-40

[24] Juliet Mitchell and Jacqueline Rose, Feminine Sexuality (1982) p. 7-8

[:6-25] Jane Gallup, Feminism and Psychoanalysis (1982) p. 69 and p. 84

[:7-26] R. Appiganesi/C. Garratt, Postmodernism for Beginners (1995) p. 94-101

[27] Elisabeth Young-Bruehl, ed., Freud and Women (1990) p. 304

[28] Nancy Friday, Women on Top (1991) p. 420

[29] G. Legman, Rationale of the Dirty Joke Vol I (1973) p. 332-3

[30] Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique, 1963, p. 110.

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@@ Line 4: / Line 4: @@
 '''Penis envy''' ({{lang-de|Penisneid}}) is a stage theorized by [[Sigmund Freud]] regarding [[female]] [[psychosexual development]]<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/2616954|title=Three essays on the theory of sexuality|last=1856-1939.|first=Freud, Sigmund,|date=1975|origyear=1962|publisher=Basic Books|others=Strachey, James.|isbn=0465097081|location=New York|oclc=2616954}}</ref>, in which young girls experience anxiety upon realization that they do not have a [[Human penis|penis]]. Freud considered this realization a defining moment in a series of transitions toward a mature female sexuality and [[gender identity]]. In Freudian theory, the penis envy stage begins the transition from an attachment to the mother to competition with the mother for the attention, recognition and affection of the father.<ref>Sigmund Freud, ''New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis'' (PFL 2) p. 158-163</ref> The parallel reaction of a [[boy]]'s realization that women do not have a penis is [[castration anxiety]].
+Freud's theory on penis envy was criticized and debated by other psychoanalysts, such as [[Karen Horney]], [[Ernest Jones]], [[Helene Deutsch]], and [[Melanie Klein]], specifically on the treatment of penis envy as a fixed operation as opposed to a formation constructed or used in a secondary manner to fend off earlier wishes.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/741058|title=The language of psycho-analysis|last=Laplanche|first=Jean|date=1973|publisher=Norton|others=Pontalis, J.-B.|year=1973|isbn=0393011054|location=New York, New York|pages=304|oclc=741058}}</ref>
-Freud's theories regarding psychosexual development, and in particular the ''phallic stage'', were criticized and refined by other psychoanalysts, such as [[Karen Horney]], [[Otto Fenichel]], [[Ernest Jones]], [[Erik Erikson]], [[Jean Piaget]], [[Juliet Mitchell]], and [[Clara Thompson]].
 ==Freud's theory==
@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 ===Psychosexual development: child===
+Penis envy stems from Freud's concept of the [[Oedipus complex]] in which the phallic conflict arises for males, as well as for females.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/19125772|title=The Freud reader|last=Freud|first=Sigmund|date=1989|publisher=W.W. Norton|others=Gay, Peter|year=1989|isbn=0393026868|edition=1st|location=New York|pages=664-665|oclc=19125772}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/741058|title=The language of psycho-analysis,|last=Laplanche|first=Jean|date=1973|publisher=W.W. Norton|others=Pontalis, J.B.|year=1973|isbn=0393011054|location=New York, New York|pages=302-304|oclc=741058}}</ref> Though Carl Jung made the distinction between the Oedipus Complex for males and the [[Electra complex|Electra Complex]] for females in his work [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044020083374;view=1up;seq=7 "''The Theory of Psychoanalysis''"]<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.32044020083374|title=The theory of psychoanalysis|last=Jung|first=C. G.|date=1915|publisher=|year=1915|isbn=|location=Nervous and Mental Disease Monograph Series no. 19|pages=}}</ref>, Freud rejected this latter term, stating that the feminine Oedipus complex is not the same as the male Oedipus because, "It is only in the male child that we find the fateful combination of love for the one parent and simultaneous hatred of the other as a rival"<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/741058|title=The language of psycho-analysis,|last=Laplanche|first=Jean|date=1973|publisher=Norton|others=Pontalis, J.B.|year=1973|isbn=0393011054|location=New York, New York|pages=152|oclc=741058}}</ref>. This development of the female Oedipus complex according to Freud begins when the female makes comparisons with another male, perceiving this not as a sex characteristic; but rather, by assuming that she had previously possessed a penis, and had lost it by castration. This leads to the essential difference between the male and female Oedipus complex that the female accepts castration as a fact, while the boy fears its happening.<ref name=":1" />
-{{unreferenced section|date=August 2012}}
+The penis envy leads to:
-In Freud's psychosexual development theory, the phallic stage (approximately between the ages of 3.5 and 6) is the first period of development in which the libidinal focus is primarily on the genital area. Prior to this stage, the [[libido]] (broadly defined by Freud as the primary motivating energy force within the mind) focuses on other physiological areas. For instance, in the ''oral stage'', in the first 12 to 18 months of life, libidinal needs concentrate on the desire to eat, sleep, suck and bite. The theory suggests that the penis becomes the organ of principal interest to ''both'' sexes in the phallic stage. This becomes the catalyst for a series of pivotal events in psychosexual development. These events, known as the [[Oedipus complex]] for boys, and the [[Electra complex]] for girls, result in significantly different outcomes for each gender because of differences in anatomy.
+* Resentment towards the mother who failed to provide the daughter with a penis
-Freud thought girls:
+* Depreciation of the mother who appears to be castrated
-* Soon after the libidinal shift to the penis, the child develops her first sexual impulses towards her mother.
+* Giving up on phallic activity (clitoral masturbation) and adopting passivity (vaginal intercourse)
-* The girl realizes that she is not physically equipped to have a heterosexual relationship with her mother, since she does not have a penis.
+* A symbolic equivalence between penis and child<ref name=":2" />
-* She desires a penis, and the power that it represents. This is described as penis envy. She sees the solution as obtaining her father's penis.
-* She develops a sexual desire for her father.
-* The girl blames her mother for her apparent castration (what ''she'' sees as punishment by the mother for being attracted to the father) assisting a shift in the focus of her sexual impulses from her mother to her father.
-* Sexual desire for her father leads to the desire to replace and eliminate her mother.
-* The girl identifies with her mother so that she might learn to mimic her, and thus replace her.
-* The child anticipates that both aforementioned desires will incur punishment (by the principle of [[lex talionis]]).
-* The girl employs the [[defence mechanism]] of [[Displacement (psychology)|displacement]] to shift the object of her sexual desires from her father to men in general.
+This envy towards the penis leads to various psychical consequences according to Freud, so long as it does not form into a reaction-formation of a masculinity complex. One such consequences is a sense of inferiority after becoming aware of the wound inflicted upon her narcissism. After initially attempting to explain this lack of a penis as a punishment towards her, she later realizes the universality of her female situation, and as a result begins to share the contempt that men have towards women as a lesser (in the important respect of a lack of a penis), and so insists upon being like a man. A second consequence of penis envy involves the formation of the character-trait of jealousy through displacement of the abandoned penis envy upon maturation.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/19125772|title=The Freud reader|last=Freud|first=Sigmund|date=1989|publisher=W.W. Norton|others=Gay, Peter|year=1989|isbn=0393026868|edition=1st|location=New York|pages=674|oclc=19125772}}</ref> Freud concludes this from considering the common female phantasy of 'a child being beaten' to be a confession of masturbation, with the child representing the clitoris. A third consequence of penis envy involves the discovery of the inferiority of this clitoris, suggested through the observation that masturbation is further removed from females than from males. This is, according to Freud, because clitoral masturbation is a masculine activity that is slowly repressed throughout puberty (and shortly after discovering the penis-envy) in an attempt to make room for the female's femininity<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/19125772|title=The Freud Reader|last=Freud|first=Sigmund|date=1989|publisher=W.W. Norton|others=Gay, Peter|year=1989|isbn=0393026868|edition=1st|location=New York|pages=675|oclc=19125772}}</ref> by transitioning the erotogenic zone from the clitoris to the vagina.<ref name=":2" />
-A similar process occurs in boys of the same age as they pass through the phallic stage of development; the key differences being that the focus of sexual impulses need not switch from mother to father, and that the fear of castration (castration anxiety) remains. The boy desires his mother, and identifies with his father, whom he sees as having the object of his sexual impulses. Furthermore, the boy's father, being the powerful aggressor of the family unit, is sufficiently menacing that the boy employs the defense mechanism of displacement to shift the object of his sexual desires from his mother to women in general.
-Freud thought this series of events occurred prior to the development of a wider sense of sexual identity, and was required for an individual to continue to enter into his or her gender role.
+The result of these anxieties culminates in the girl giving up on her desire for the penis, and instead puts it in the place of the wish for a child; and with that goal in mind, she takes her father as the love-object and makes the mother into the object of her jealousy.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/19125772|title=The Freud reader|last=Freud|first=Sigmund|date=1989|publisher=W.W. Norton|others=Gay, Peter|year=1989|isbn=0393026868|edition=1st|location=New York|pages=676|oclc=19125772}}</ref>
 ===Psychosexual development: adult===
@@ Line 38: / Line 31: @@
 ===Within psychoanalytic circles===
-Freud's theories regarding psychosexual development, and in particular the ''phallic stage'', were early challenged by other psychoanalysts, such as [[Karen Horney]], Otto Fenichel and [[Ernest Jones]],<ref>Peter Gay, ''Freud'' (1989) p. 520-2</ref> though Freud did not accept their view of penis envy as a secondary, rather than a primary, female reaction.<ref>Freud, ''On Sexuality'' p. 391-2</ref> Later psychologists, such as [[Erik Erikson]] and [[Jean Piaget]], challenged the Freudian model of child psychological development as a whole.
+Freud's theories regarding psychosexual development, and in particular the ''phallic stage'', were early challenged by other psychoanalysts, such as [[Karen Horney]], Otto Fenichel and [[Ernest Jones]],<ref name=":4">Peter Gay, ''Freud'' (1989) p. 520-2</ref> though Freud did not accept their view of penis envy as a secondary, rather than a primary, female reaction.<ref>Freud, ''On Sexuality'' p. 391-2</ref> Later psychologists, such as [[Erik Erikson]] and [[Jean Piaget]], challenged the Freudian model of child psychological development as a whole.
+[[Jacques Lacan]], however, took up and developed Freud's theory of the importance of what he called "''penisneid'' in the unconscious of women"<ref>Jacques Lacan, ''Écrits: A Selection'' (1997) p. 281</ref> in linguistic terms, seeing what he called the phallus as the privileged signifier of humanity's subordination to language: "the phallus (by virtue of which the unconscious is language)".<ref>Jacques Lacan, ''Écrits: A Selection'' (1997) p. 288</ref> He thereby opened up a new field of debate around [[phallogocentrism]]<ref name=":5">J. Childers/G. Hentzi, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=bnhNE6LrmMYC&printsec=frontcover#v=snippet&q=%22penis%20envy%22%20OR%20%22phallogocentrism%22&f=false The Columbia Dictionary of Modern Literary and Cultural Criticism]'' (1995) p. 224-6 and p. 39-40</ref>—some figures like [[Juliet Mitchell]] endorsing a view of penis envy which "uses, not the man, but the phallus to which the man has to lay claim, as its key term",<ref>Juliet Mitchell and [[Jacqueline Rose]], ''Feminine Sexuality'' (1982) p. 7-8</ref> others strongly repudiating it.<ref name=":6">Jane Gallup, ''Feminism and Psychoanalysis'' (1982) p. 69 and p. 84</ref>
+Ernest Jones attempted to remedy Freud's initial theory penis envy by giving three alternative meanings:
+# The wish to acquire a penis, usually by swalling it and retaining it within the body, often converting it there into a baby
-[[Jacques Lacan]], however, took up and developed Freud's theory of the importance of what he called "''penisneid'' in the unconscious of women"<ref>Jacques Lacan, ''Écrits: A Selection'' (1997) p. 281</ref> in linguistic terms, seeing what he called the phallus as the privileged signifier of humanity's subordination to language: "the phallus (by virtue of which the unconscious is language)".<ref>Lacan, p. 288</ref> He thereby opened up a new field of debate around [[phallogocentrism]]<ref>J. Childers/G. Hentzi, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=bnhNE6LrmMYC&printsec=frontcover#v=snippet&q=%22penis%20envy%22%20OR%20%22phallogocentrism%22&f=false The Columbia Dictionary of Modern Literary and Cultural Criticism]'' (1995) p. 224-6 and p. 39-40</ref>—some figures like [[Juliet Mitchell]] endorsing a view of penis envy which "uses, not the man, but the phallus to which the man has to lay claim, as its key term",<ref>Juliet Mitchell and [[Jacqueline Rose]], ''Feminine Sexuality'' (1982) p. 7-8</ref> others strongly repudiating it.<ref>Jane Gallup, ''Feminism and Psychoanalysis'' (1982) p. 69 and p. 84</ref>
+# The wish to possess a penis in the clitoric region
+# The adult wish to enjoy a penis in intercourse<ref name=":0" />
 ===Feminist and sociological criticisms===
-In Freud's theory, the female sexual center shifts from the [[clitoris]] to the [[vagina]] during a heterosexual life event. Freud believed in a duality between how [[gender]]s construct mature sexuality in terms of the opposite gender, whereas feminists reject the notion that female sexuality can only be defined in relation to the male. Feminists development theorists instead believe that the clitoris, not the vagina, is the mature center of female sexuality because it allows a construction of mature female sexuality independent of the penis.
+In Freud's theory, the female sexual center shifts from the [[clitoris]] to the [[vagina]] during a heterosexual life event.<ref name=":3" /> Freud believed in a duality between how [[gender]]s construct mature sexuality in terms of the opposite gender, whereas feminists reject the notion that female sexuality can only be defined in relation to the male. Feminists development theorists instead believe that the clitoris, not the vagina, is the mature center of female sexuality because it allows a construction of mature female sexuality independent of the penis.{{Citation needed|date=December 2018}}
-A significant number of [[Feminism|feminists]] have been highly critical of penis envy theory {{Citation needed|date=July 2018}} as a concept and psychoanalysis as a discipline, arguing that the assumptions and approaches of the psychoanalytic project are profoundly [[patriarchy|patriarchal]], anti-feminist, and [[misogynist]]ic and represent women as broken or deficient men.<ref>Gay, p. 520-1</ref> [[Karen Horney]]—a German psychoanalyst who also placed great emphasis on childhood experiences in psychological development—was a particular advocate of this view. She asserted the concept of "[[womb envy]]", and saw "masculine [[narcissism]]"<ref>Quoted in Gay, p. 520</ref> as underlying the mainstream Freudian view.
+A significant number of [[Feminism|feminists]] have been highly critical of penis envy theory {{Citation needed|date=July 2018}} as a concept and psychoanalysis as a discipline, arguing that the assumptions and approaches of the psychoanalytic project are profoundly [[patriarchy|patriarchal]], anti-feminist, and [[misogynist]]ic and represent women as broken or deficient men.<ref name=":4" /> [[Karen Horney]]—a German psychoanalyst who also placed great emphasis on childhood experiences in psychological development—was a particular advocate of this view. She asserted the concept of "[[womb envy]]", and saw "masculine [[narcissism]]"<ref name=":4" /> as underlying the mainstream Freudian view.
-Some [[Feminism|feminists]]  argue that Freud's developmental theory is [[Heteronormativity|heteronormative]] and denies women a mature sexuality independent of men; they also criticize it for privileging the [[vagina]] over the [[clitoris]] as the center of [[Human female sexuality|women's sexuality]]. They criticize the sociosexual theory for privileging heterosexual [[Human sexual activity|sexual activity]] and penile penetration in defining women's "mature state of sexuality".<ref>Peter Gay, ''Freud'' (1989) p. 520-2</ref><ref>Jane Gallup, ''Feminism and Psychoanalysis'' (1982) p. 69 and p. 84</ref><ref>R. Appiganesi/C. Garratt, ''Postmodernism for Beginners'' (1995) p. 94-101</ref> Others claim that the concept explains how, in a patriarchal society, women might envy the power accorded to those with a phallus.<ref>Peter Gay, ''Freud'' (1989) p. 520-2</ref><ref>Jane Gallup, ''Feminism and Psychoanalysis'' (1982) p. 69 and p. 84</ref><ref>Elisabeth Young-Bruehl, ed., ''Freud and Women'' (1990) p. 304</ref>
+Some [[Feminism|feminists]]  argue that Freud's developmental theory is [[Heteronormativity|heteronormative]] and denies women a mature sexuality independent of men; they also criticize it for privileging the [[vagina]] over the [[clitoris]] as the center of [[Human female sexuality|women's sexuality]]. They criticize the sociosexual theory for privileging heterosexual [[Human sexual activity|sexual activity]] and penile penetration in defining women's "mature state of sexuality".<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":6" /><ref name=":7">R. Appiganesi/C. Garratt, ''Postmodernism for Beginners'' (1995) p. 94-101</ref> Others claim that the concept explains how, in a patriarchal society, women might envy the power accorded to those with a phallus.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":6" /><ref>Elisabeth Young-Bruehl, ed., ''Freud and Women'' (1990) p. 304</ref>
 In her influential paper "Women and Penis Envy" (1943), [[Clara Thompson]] reformulated the latter as ''social'' envy for the trappings of the dominant gender,<ref>Nancy Friday, ''Women on Top'' (1991) p. 420</ref> a [[Sociology|sociological]] response to female subordination under patriarchy.<ref>G. Legman, ''Rationale of the Dirty Joke Vol I'' (1973) p. 332-3</ref>
@@ Line 53: / Line 52: @@
 [[Betty Friedan]] referred to penis envy as a purely parasitic social bias typical of Victorianism and particularly of Freud's own biography, and showed how the concept played a key role in discrediting alternative notions of femininity in the early to mid twentieth century: "Because Freud's followers could only see woman in the image defined by Freud – inferior, childish, helpless, with no possibility of happiness unless she adjusted to being man's passive object – they wanted to help women get rid of their suppressed envy, their neurotic desire to be equal. They wanted to help women find sexual fulfilment as women, by affirming their natural inferiority".<ref>Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique, 1963, p. 110.</ref>
-A small but influential number of Feminist philosophers, working in [[Psychoanalytic feminism]], and including [[Luce Irigaray]], [[Julia Kristeva]],<ref>R. Appiganesi/C. Garratt, ''Postmodernism for Beginners'' (1995) p. 94-101</ref> and [[Hélène Cixous]], have taken varying [[post-structuralist]] views on the question, inspired or at least challenged by figures such as Jacques Lacan and [[Jacques Derrida]].<ref>Childers, p. 40</ref>
+A small but influential number of Feminist philosophers, working in [[Psychoanalytic feminism]], and including [[Luce Irigaray]], [[Julia Kristeva]],<ref name=":7" /> and [[Hélène Cixous]], have taken varying [[post-structuralist]] views on the question, inspired or at least challenged by figures such as Jacques Lacan and [[Jacques Derrida]].<ref name=":5" />
 [[Juliet Mitchell]] in her early work attempted to reconcile Freud's thoughts on psychosexual development with Feminism and Marxism by declaring his theories to be simply observations of gender identity under [[capitalism]].{{Citation needed|date=June 2012}}

v t e Sigmund Freud
Books	On Aphasia (1891) Studies on Hysteria (1895) The Interpretation of Dreams (including On Dreams) (1899) The Psychopathology of Everyday Life (1901) Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious (1905) Totem and Taboo (1913) Introduction to Psychoanalysis (1916–17) The History of the Psychoanalytic Movement (1917) Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego (1921) The Ego and the Id (1923) The Question of Lay Analysis (1926) The Future of an Illusion (1927) Civilization and Its Discontents (1930) Moses and Monotheism (1939)
Essays	"The Aetiology of Hysteria" (1896) Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (1905) Delusion and Dream in Jensen's Gradiva (1907) Creative Writers and Day-Dreaming (1908) Leonardo da Vinci, A Memory of His Childhood (1910) On Narcissism (1914) The History of the Psychoanalytic Movement (1914) Some Character-Types Met with in Psycho-Analytic Work (1915) Thoughts for the Times on War and Death (1916) Mourning and Melancholia (1918) Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920) Medusa's Head (1922) Dostoevsky and Parricide (1928)
Case studies	"Dora" (Ida Bauer) Emma Eckstein Herbert Graf ("Little Hans") Irma's injection "Anna O." (Bertha Pappenheim) "Rat Man" Sergei Pankejeff ("Wolfman") Daniel Paul Schreber
Original concepts	Psychoanalysis Id, ego and superego Libido Preconscious Ego ideal censorship Free association Transference Psychosexual development Oral stage Anal stage Phallic stage Latency stage Genital stage Oedipus complex Father complex Deferred obedience Reality principle Seduction theory
Related	Bibliography complete works Archives Vienna home and museum London home and museum 1971 statue Interment Freudian slip Humor Inner circle Neo-Freudianism Views on homosexuality Religious views
Cultural depictions	Freud: The Secret Passion (1962 film) The Visitor (1993 play) Mahler on the Couch (2010 film) A Dangerous Method (2011 film) Freud (2020 TV series) Freud's Last Session (2023 film)
Family	Martha Bernays (wife) Anna Freud (daughter) Ernst L. Freud (son) Clement Freud (grandson) Lucian Freud (grandson) Walter Freud (grandson) Amalia Freud (mother) Jacob Freud (father) Edward Bernay (nephew) Jofi (dog)