Page:The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis III 1922 1.djvu/35

 MANIFESTATIONS OF THE FEMALE CASTRATION COMPLEX ^^

do something horrible to her husband in the event of her mar- riage. The 'horrible thing' turned out to be the idea of castration through biting. The case showed most clearly how displacement of the libido from the genital to the mouth zone gratifies very- different tendencies simultaneously. In these phantasies the mouth serves equally for the desired reception of the male organ and for its destruction. Such experiences warn us not to be too ready to overestimate a single determinant. Although in Ijie preceding presentation we have estimated the castration complex to be an important impelling force in the development of neurotic pheno- mena, we are not justified in over-valuing it in the way Adler has done when he one-sidedly represents the 'masculine protest' as an essential causa movens of the neuroses. Experience that is definite and is verified every day shows us that neurotics of both sexes who loudly proclaim and lay emphasis on the masculine tendency frequently conceal — though only superficially — intense female-passive desires. Psycho-analysis should constantly remind us of the over-determination of all psychical ideas; it has to reject as one-sided and fragmentar^f every psychological method of working which does not take into full account the influence of various factors on one another. In the present work I have collected material belonging to the castration complex from a great number of psycho-analyses. I expressly mention here that it is solely for reasons of clearness that I have only occasionally mentioned the expressions of the female-passive impulses which were lacking in none of my patients.

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Women whose ideas and feelings are influenced and governed by the castration complex to an important degree — no matter whether consciously or unconsciously — transplant ike effect oj this complex on to their children. These women may influence the psychosexual development of their daughters either by speaking disparagingly of female sexueility to them, or by unconsciously giving them indications of their aversion to the man. The latter method is the more permanently effective one, because it tends to undermine the heterosexuality of the growing-up girl. On the other hand, the direct method of depreciation can evoke real effects of