Article
The Infantile Genital Organization
Die infantile Genitalorganisation
A short paper of 1923, subtitled "An Interpolation into the Theory of Sexuality", in which Freud corrects a passage of his Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality. There he had held that infantile sexuality resembles the adult form in its object choice but lacks, or only imperfectly achieves, the primacy of the genitals. He now argues that at the height of infantile sexual development interest in the genitals and genital activity become dominant, hardly less than in maturity. What sets this infantile genital organization apart is that for both sexes only one genital, the male one, is taken into account: there is no genital primacy but a primacy of the phallus. Freud says he can describe the process only in the boy. The boy assumes that every being has an organ like his own and directs his sexual curiosity at it. When he discovers that girls lack it, he first denies what he saw, then supposes it will grow, and at last concludes that it was there and was taken away, through castration. Freud holds that the castration complex can be understood only from this origin in the phase of phallic primacy, and traces to it much of men's contempt for and horror of women, citing Ferenczi's reading of the Medusa's head. The child generalizes the lack only slowly, keeping the penis for respected women such as the mother until his theories of birth, and the vagina remains undiscovered. The paper ends by tracing how the polarity of the sexes changes through development: subject and object, active and passive in the sadistic-anal organization, phallic and castrated in the infantile genital organization, and male and female only at puberty.
Main ideas
- Infantile sexuality comes closer to the adult form than Freud had held: at its height, interest in the genitals and genital activity dominate.
- In the infantile genital organization only the male genital counts, for both sexes: it is a primacy of the phallus, not a primacy of the genitals.
- The boy assumes all beings have a penis, and much of his curiosity, exhibitionism and aggression serves his sexual research.
- Faced with the absence of a penis in girls, the boy first denies it, then expects it to grow, and finally concludes it was removed: the idea of castration.
- The castration complex is understood only through its origin in the phase of phallic primacy; earlier losses such as weaning or the passing of faeces prepare the idea but are not yet castration.
- The conviction that women lack a penis underlies much contempt for women, horror of them and disposition to homosexuality, as in Ferenczi's reading of the Medusa's head.
- The child generalizes the lack slowly, sparing respected women such as the mother until he forms theories of birth; the vagina itself remains undiscovered in childhood.
- The polarity of the sexes changes through development: subject and object, active and passive, phallic and castrated, and only at puberty male and female.
What it shows
- 1923
Sigmund Freud introduced Phallic phase
In 'The Infantile Genital Organization' (1923), Freud added to his theory of sexuality a childhood stage in which only the male genital counts for both sexes, a primacy of the phallus rather than of the genitals.
- 1908
Sigmund Freud introduced Castration complex
Freud first described the castration complex in 1908, among the sexual theories of children, and the case of Little Hans (1909), whose mother threatened to have his 'widdler' cut off, gave it its first clinical demonstration. In 1923 he tied it to the phallic phase, in which the child knows only one genital.
- 1923
Sigmund Freud introduced Denial
Freud gave disavowal (Verleugnung) its specific sense from 1923, when he described how children faced with the absence of a penis in girls deny the lack and believe they see one all the same; in his later writings on fetishism and splitting of the ego it becomes a defence against a perception of reality.