Varieties of Castration Experience: Relevance to Contemporary Psychoanalysis and Psychodynamic Psychotherapy

Abstract

Although Freud considered castration to be one of the two major anxieties of human life, the castration complex has been relatively neglected in contemporary psychoanalytic writing and is insufficiently discussed in presentations of clinical cases. This article discusses the relevance of the concept to contemporary psychoanalysis and psychodynamic psychotherapy, in particular the important contributing role of castration conflicts in the pathogenesis of a wide range of clinical symptoms. The author begins by briefly reviewing some classical and contemporary psychoanalytic ideas about castration to show how the concept has broadened and is currently used not only to signify fear of damage to or loss of the genital, but also metaphorically to indicate a threat to or loss of any valued human characteristic or function. He outlines Brenner's distinction between castration anxiety and castration depression, and reviews the role of childhood trauma in intensifying castration conflicts. He then illustrates the clinical application of these ideas by describing aspects of his psychotherapeutic work with three male patients who presented with a variety of symptoms and distressing psychological experiences that were gradually resolved through the analysis of underlying castration anxiety and/or castration depression. Although castration anxiety is frequently intermingled with separation anxiety, the author concludes that with many traumatized patients castration conflicts are in the foreground and the therapist needs to focus on the patient's proneness to humiliation, powerlessness, and shame.Keywords: body image; castration anxiety; castration depression; childhood trauma; masculinity; self-esteem Psychoanalysis and psychodynamic psychotherapy are evolving treatment modalities with clinical interventions being modified or expanded when new theoretical concepts are introduced, especially with

Creativity and Perversion: Waiting for the Muse

“…When my patient first entered treatment, his drawings and perversion seemed to represent failed efforts to repair the self and free himself from a persecutory internal bad object. The removal of his beard, and the analogy he later made to a wolf amputating its leg to escape from a hunter's trap, suggested that his impotence and inhibited creativity were symbolic selfcastrations (Taylor 2016). Indeed, Eric said that without the perversion he would feel as if he did not have a penis.…”

Castration Anxiety

“…Over the past two decades, psychoanalysts have come to use the term castration not only literally but also symbolically and as a metaphor for injury to or loss of some valued part of the self. There is recognition also that the penis often serves as a metaphor for power, thus rendering some men vulnerable to narcissistic mortification and feelings of humiliation and shame as they question and compare their achievements and sexual performance in relation to other men (Taylor 2016).…”