THE CASTRATION COMPLEX ^ by
AUGUST STARCKE, Den Bolder, Holland.
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In psycho-analytical literature the term "castration complex" implies a network of unconscious thoughts and strivings, in the centre of which is the idea of having been deprived, or the expectation of becoming deprived, of the external (male) genitals. This complex is a general one, probably universal, but the intensity of its effects varies.
Van Ophuijsen * would reserve the term castration complex for those cases in which the feeling that the genitals are damaged or imperfectly developed is associated with the feeling that this signifies a punishment for a sexual offence; and he comprises the whole group of ideas under the term "masculinity-complex" of women, of which the castration complex might be one mani- festation.
In the following remarks I do not adopt this definition; my reason for this will be clear at the conclusion. I also consider as effects of the castration complex those cases in which the feeling of guilt is not perceived as such, but is projected on to the surroundings and contributes towards the intensification of the feeling of hate against them, and is expressed by a marked feeling of having been unjustly treated, together with that of embitter- ment. I adopt this view because it is necessary for my purpose to lay stress more on the agreements than on the differences between these groups of ideas. It is clear that the strivings which constitute this broader (original) idea of the castration complex are only one part of an ambivalent attitude; the other part of
. » Read at the Sixth International Psycho-Analytical Congress, in The Hague, September 1920. Translated by Douglas Bryan.
- J. H. W. van Ophuijsen, "Beitrage zum Mannlichkeitskoroplex der Frau'*,
InUrnat. Zeitschr. fUr drztl. Psychoanalyse, 1917, Bd. IV, S. 241.
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