Paul Verhaeghe – The Riddle of Castration Anxiety – Lacan Beyond Freud – Mind the Gap, Mind the Gap, Mind the Gap…
 
THE LETTER 06 (Spring 1996) pages 44-53
 
One of the most obvious observations that can be made about castration anxiety is that it is very difficult to observe. Indeed, in clinical practice it is very hard to find a subject that comes to us complaining about his or her castration anxiety. To my knowledge, the ultimate castratophobia does not exist.
 
This clinical fact is endorsed by an historical one: the concept of castration anxiety itself only received its general expression at a rather late stage of Freud’s...