Editing Castration anxiety

{{Short description|Child's fear of removal of their penis}}
{{Primary sources|find="castration anxiety"|date=April 2025}}
{{Psychoanalysis |Concepts}}
[[File:Cronus-and-uranus-french-c-1501.jpg|thumb|alt=A painting depicting Uranus castrating Cronus while he eats an infant. Aphrodite can be seen in the background looking at herself in a mirror while standing in a river.|Castration of Uranus by Cronus, circa 1501]]
'''Castration anxiety''' is an overwhelming fear of damage to, or [[penis removal|loss of]], the penis—a derivative of [[Sigmund Freud]]'s theory of the [[castration complex]], one of his earliest [[psychoanalytic theories]].<ref name="Schwartz" /> The term can refer to the fear of [[emasculation]] in both a literal and metaphorical sense.

Freud regarded castration anxiety as a universal human experience. It is thought to begin between the ages of 3 and 5, during the [[phallic stage]] of psychosexual development.<ref name="Feiner" /> In Freud's theory, it is the child's perception of anatomical difference (the possession of a penis) that induces castration anxiety as a result of an assumed paternal threat made in response to their sexual proclivities. Although typically associated with males, castration anxiety is thought to be experienced, in differing ways, by both sexes.<ref>Appignanesi, Lisa & Forrester, John. ''Freud's Women''. London: Penguin Books, 1992, pp.403-414</ref>

== Literal ==
Castration anxiety refers to a child's fear of having their genitalia disfigured or removed as punishment for [[Oedipus complex|Oedipal]] desire.<ref name="Farlex Partner Medical Dictionary" /> In Freudian [[psychoanalysis]], castration anxiety (''Kastrationsangst'') refers to an unconscious fear of penile loss that originates during the phallic stage of [[psychosexual development]] and continues into adulthood. According to Freud, when the infant male becomes aware of differences between male and female genitalia he assumes that the female's penis has been removed and becomes anxious that his penis will be cut off by his rival, the father figure, as punishment for desiring the mother figure.<ref name="Freud" />

In 19th-century [[Europe]], it was not unheard of for parents to threaten their misbehaving sons with castration or otherwise threaten their genitals. This theme is explored in the story ''Tupik'' by French writer [[Michel Tournier]] in his collection of stories entitled ''Le Coq de Bruyère'' (1978) and is a phenomenon Freud documents several times.<ref name="Sigmund Freud" /> [[John Harvey Kellogg|Kellogg]] recounts one case of castration used as a cure and punishment for [[masturbation]], although he did not advocate it.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kellogg |first1=John Harvey |title=Plain facts for old and young : embracing the natural history and hygiene of organic life |date=1888 |publisher=Burlington, Iowa : I. F. Segner & Co. |url=https://archive.org/details/plainfacold00kell/page/362/mode/2up?ref=ol&view=theater&q=castration |access-date=12 July 2024}}</ref>{{rp|363}}

== Metaphorical ==
Castration anxiety can also refer to being castrated symbolically. In the metaphorical sense, castration anxiety refers to the idea of feeling or being insignificant; there is a need to keep one's self from being dominated; whether it be socially or in a relationship.<ref name="Sarnoff and Corwin" />
Symbolic castration anxiety refers to the fear of being degraded, dominated or made insignificant, usually an irrational fear where the person will go to extreme lengths to save their pride and/or perceive trivial things as being degrading making their anxiety restrictive and sometimes damaging.
This can also tie in with literal castration anxiety in fearing the loss of virility or sexual dominance.

== Relation to power and control ==

According to Freudian psychoanalysis, castration anxiety can be completely overwhelming to the individual, often breaching other aspects of his or her life.{{citation needed|date=September 2021}} A link has been found between castration anxiety and fear of death.<ref name="Sarnoff and Corwin" /> Although differing degrees of anxiety are common, young men who felt the most threatened in their youth tended to show chronic anxiety. Because the consequences are extreme, the fear can evolve from potential disfigurement to life-threatening situations. Essentially, castration anxiety can lead to a fear of death, and a feeling of loss of control over one's life.<ref name="Sarnoff and Corwin" />

To feel so powerless can be detrimental to an individual's mental health. One of the most concerning problems with all of this is the idea that the individual does not recognize that their sexual desires are the cause of the emotional distress.<ref name="Sarnoff and Corwin" /> Because of unconscious thoughts, as theorized in the ideas of psychoanalysis, the anxiety is brought to the surface where it is experienced symbolically. This will lead to the fear associated with bodily injury in castration anxiety, which can then lead to the fear of dying or being killed.<ref name="Sarnoff and Corwin" />

== Relation to circumcision ==
Freud had a strongly critical view of circumcision, believing it to be a 'substitute for castration', and an 'expression of submission to the father's will'.<ref name="Goldman" /><ref name=Freud1920 /> This view was shared by others in the psychoanalytic community, such as [[Wilhelm Reich]], [[Hermann Nunberg]], and [[Jacques Lacan]], who stated that there is "nothing less castrating than circumcision!"<ref name="Ozturk" /><ref name=Lacan />

Themes central to castration anxiety that feature prominently in circumcision include pain,<ref name="Ozturk" /> fear,<ref name="Ozturk" /> loss of control (with the child's forced restraint,<ref name="Goldman" /> and in the psychological effects of the event, which may include sensation seeking, and lower emotional stability<ref name=Miani />) and the perception that the event is a form of punishment.<ref name=PsychologyToday />

The ritual's origination as a result of Oedipal conflict was tested by examining 111 societies, finding that circumcision is likely to be found in societies in which the son sleeps in the mother's bed during the nursing period in bodily contact with her, and/or the father sleeps in a different hut.<ref name=Kitahara />

A study of the procedure without anaesthesia on children in Turkey found 'each child looked at his penis immediately after the circumcision 'as if to make sure that all was not cut off'.<ref name="Goldman" /> Another study of 60 males subject to communal circumcision ceremonies in Turkey found that 21.5% of them "remembered that they were specifically afraid that their penis might or would be cut off entirely," while 'specific fears of castration' occurred in 28% of the village-reared men.<ref name="Ozturk" /> Fear of the authoritarian father increased considerably in 12 children.<ref name="Ozturk" />

The figure of [[Lilith]], described as "a hot fiery female who first cohabited with man"<ref name=Davidson /> presents as an archetypal representation of the first mother of man, and primordial sexual temptation. Male children were said to be at risk of Lilith's wrath for eight days after birth.<ref name=Elhaik /> Deceiving Lilith into believing newborn babies were a girl – letting the boy's hair grow and even dressing him in girl clothes – were said to be the most effective means to avoid her harm, until they were ritually circumcised on the eighth day of life as part of a [[Covenant of the pieces|covenant]] with God.<ref name=Genesis1712 />

The figure of [[Book of Judith|Judith]], depicted both as "a type of the praying Virgin... who tramples Satan and harrows Hell," and also as "seducer-assassin" archetypically reflects the dichotomous themes presented by castration anxiety and circumcision: sexual purity, chastity, violence, and eroticism.<ref name=Wills /><ref name=Guardian /> Judith defeats [[Assyrian people|Assyrian]] General, [[Holofernes]] by cutting his head off – [[decapitation]] being an act that Freud equated with castration in his essay, "Medusa's Head".<ref name=MedusasHead />

== Counterpart in females ==
It is implied in Freudian psychology that both girls and boys pass through the same developmental stages: [[oral stage|oral]], [[anal stage|anal]], and phallic stages. Freud, however, believed that the results may be different because the anatomy of the different sexes is different.

The counterpart of castration anxiety for females is [[penis envy]]. Penis envy, and the concept of such, was first introduced by Freud in an article published in 1908 titled "On the Sexual Theories of Children". The idea was presumed that females/girls envied those (mostly their fathers) with a penis because theirs was taken from them—essentially they were already "castrated". Freud entertained that the envy they experienced was their unconscious wish to be like a boy and to have a penis.<ref name="Fancher & Rutherford" />

Penis envy, in Freudian psychology, refers to the reaction of the female/young girl during development when she realizes that she does not possess a penis. According to Freud, this was a major development in the identity (gender and sexual) of the girl. The contemporary culture assumes that penis envy is the woman wishing they were in fact a man. This is unrelated to the notion of "small penis syndrome" which is the assumption by the man that his penis is too small. According to Freud's beliefs, girls developed a weaker<ref name=AnatomicalDistinction /> [[superego]], which he considered a consequence of penis envy.

== Empirical testing ==

Sarnoff et al. surmised that men differ in their degree of castration anxiety through the castration threat they experienced in childhood.<ref name="Sarnoff and Corwin" /> Therefore, these men may be expected to respond in different ways to different degrees of castration anxiety that they experience from the same sexually arousing stimulus.<ref name="Sarnoff and Corwin" /> The experimenters aimed to demonstrate that in the absence of a particular stimulus, men who were severely threatened with castration, as children, might experience long-lasting anxiety.<ref name="Sarnoff and Corwin" /> The researchers claimed that this anxiety is from the repressed desires for sexual contact with women. It was thought that these desires are trying to reach the men's consciousness.<ref name="Sarnoff and Corwin" /> The experimenters deduced that unconscious anxiety of being castrated might come from the fear the consciousness has of bodily injury.<ref name="Sarnoff and Corwin" /> The researchers concluded that individuals who are in excellent health and who have never experienced any serious accident or illness may be obsessed by gruesome and relentless fears of dying or of being killed.<ref name="Sarnoff and Corwin" />

In another article related to castration anxiety, Hall et al. investigated whether sex differences would be found in the manifestations of castration anxiety in their subject's dreams.<ref name="Hall" /> The researchers hypothesized that male dreamers would report more dreams that would express their fear of castration anxiety instead of dreams involving castration wish and penis envy.<ref name="Hall" /> They further hypothesized that women will have a reversed effect, that is, female dreamers will report more dreams containing fear of castration wish and penis envy than dreams including castration anxiety.<ref name="Hall" /> The results demonstrated that many more women than men dreamt about babies and weddings and that men had more dreams about castration anxiety than women.<ref name="Hall" />

== See also ==
{{Columns-list|colwidth=22em|
* [[Castration complex]]
* [[Anti-Œdipus]]
* [[Jacques Lacan]]
* [[Genital retraction syndrome]]
* [[Luce Irigaray]]
* [[Medusa's Head]]
* [[Phallic woman]]
* [[Phallogocentrism]]
* [[Vagina dentata]]
}}

== References ==
{{Reflist |refs=

<ref name=AnatomicalDistinction>{{Cite web|url=http://www.aquestionofexistence.com/Aquestionofexistence/Problems_of_Gender/Entries/2011/8/28_Sigmund_Freud_files/Freud%20Some%20Psychological%20Consequences%20of%20the%20Anatomical%20Distinction%20between%20the%20Sexes.pdf|title=Some Psychological Consequences of the Anatomical Distinction between the Sexes|last=Freud|first=Sigmund|date=1925|access-date=2017-05-21|archive-date=2016-06-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160615125357/http://www.aquestionofexistence.com/Aquestionofexistence/Problems_of_Gender/Entries/2011/8/28_Sigmund_Freud_files/Freud%20Some%20Psychological%20Consequences%20of%20the%20Anatomical%20Distinction%20between%20the%20Sexes.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name=Davidson>{{Cite book |last=Davidson |first=Gustav |title=A Dictionary of Angels including the Fallen Angels |publisher=The Free Press |location=New York |pages=174}}</ref>

<ref name=Elhaik>{{Cite web|last=Elhaik|first=Eran|title=Neonatal circumcision could increase the risk of sudden infant death syndrome in babies – new research|url=http://theconversation.com/neonatal-circumcision-could-increase-the-risk-of-sudden-infant-death-syndrome-in-babies-new-research-109311|access-date=2021-09-29|website=The Conversation|date=11 January 2019 |language=en|archive-date=2021-09-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210902182339/https://theconversation.com/neonatal-circumcision-could-increase-the-risk-of-sudden-infant-death-syndrome-in-babies-new-research-109311|url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="Fancher & Rutherford">Fancher, Raymond E. & Rutherford, Alexandra ''Pioneers of Psychology'', W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. New York, London. 2012 {{ISBN|978-0-393-93530-1}}</ref>

<ref name="Farlex Partner Medical Dictionary">Farlex Partner Medical Dictionary 2012</ref>

<ref name="Feiner">Feiner, K. (1988) A test of a theory about body integrity: Part 2. ''Psychoanalytic Psychology''. 5(1), 71–79.</ref>

<ref name="Freud">Freud, S. (1954). ''The Origins Of Psycho-Analysis: Letters To Wilhelm Fliess, Drafts And Notes: 1887-1902''. Edited by [[Marie Bonaparte]], [[Anna Freud]], [[Ernst Kris]]. Translated by [[Eric Mosbacher]] and [[James Strachey]]. New York: Basic Books.</ref>

<ref name=Freud1920>{{Cite book|last=Freud|first=S|title=Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis |year=1920}}</ref>

<ref name=Genesis1712>{{Bibleverse|Genesis|17:12}}</ref>

<ref name="Goldman">{{Cite journal|last=Goldman|first=R.|date=1999|title=The Psychological Impact of Circumcision |journal=BJU International |volume=83 |issue=Suppl 1 |pages=93–102 |doi=10.1046/j.1464-410x.1999.0830s1093.x |pmid=10349420 |s2cid=7927499 |url=https://web.sonoma.edu/users/h/hessm/425-files/psychological_impact_of_circumcision.pdf|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111225455/https://web.sonoma.edu/users/h/hessm/425-files/psychological_impact_of_circumcision.pdf |archive-date=2020-11-11}}</ref>

<ref name=Guardian>{{Cite web|date=2004-01-10|title=Judith with the Head of Holofernes, Lucas Cranach the Elder (c1530) |url=http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2004/jan/10/art|access-date=2021-09-29|website=the Guardian|language=en}}</ref>

<ref name="Hall">Hall, C., & van de Castle, R. L. "An empirical investigation of the castration complex in dreams", ''Journal of Personality'', 1965, 33(1), 20. {{doi|10.1111/1467-6494.ep893396}}</ref>

<ref name=Kitahara>{{Cite journal|last=Kitahara|first=M.|date=1976|title=A cross-cultural test of the Freudian theory of circumcision|url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/60293/|journal=International Journal of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy|volume=5|pages=535–546|issn=0091-0600|pmid=60293|access-date=2021-09-29|archive-date=2021-09-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210929041019/https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/60293/|url-status=live}}</ref>

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<ref name=MedusasHead>{{Cite book|last=Freud|first=S|title=Medusa's Head |year=1922|pages=1}}</ref>

<ref name=Miani>{{Cite journal|last=Miani|first=A|title=Neonatal male circumcision is associated with altered adult socio-affective processing |url=https://www.cell.com/heliyon/pdf/S2405-8440(20)32409-9.pdf|url-status=live |journal=Heliyon |year=2020 |volume=6 |issue=11|pages=e05566|doi=10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e05566|doi-access=free|pmid=33299934|pmc=7702013 |bibcode=2020Heliy...605566M|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220729210819/https://www.cell.com/heliyon/pdf/S2405-8440%2820%2932409-9.pdf |archive-date=2022-07-29}}</ref>

<ref name="Ozturk">{{Cite journal|last=Ozturk|first=Orhan M.|date=1973|title=Ritual Circumcision and Castration Anxiety|url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00332747.1973.11023745|journal=Psychiatry|language=en|volume=36|issue=1|pages=49–60|doi=10.1080/00332747.1973.11023745|pmid=4687287|issn=0033-2747|access-date=2021-09-29|archive-date=2022-07-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220729212236/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00332747.1973.11023745|url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

<ref name=PsychologyToday>{{Cite web |title=Circumcision's Psychological Damage {{!}} Psychology Today Australia |url=https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/moral-landscapes/201501/circumcision-s-psychological-damage |access-date=2021-09-29 |website=www.psychologytoday.com |language=en |archive-date=2022-07-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220729212237/https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/moral-landscapes/201501/circumcision-s-psychological-damage |url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name="Sarnoff and Corwin">Sarnoff, I., & Corwin S.M., (1959) Castration anxiety and the fear of death. ''Journal of Personality'', 27(3), 374.</ref>

<ref name="Schwartz">Schwartz, Bernard J. (1955) The measurement of castration anxiety and anxiety over loss of love. Journal of Personality, 24 204-219.</ref>

<ref name="Sigmund Freud">Freud, Sigmund. "The Dissolution of the Oedipus Complex." ''On Sexuality''. Vol. 7 of Penguin Freud Library. Trans. James Strachey. Ed. Angela Richards. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1976. 313-322.</ref>

<ref name=Wills>{{Cite book|last1=Wills|first1=Lawrence Mitchell|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7X_Yy3jeN3sC&pg=PA153|title=The Jewish Novel in the Ancient World|last2=Wills|first2=Professor of Biblical Studies Lawrence M.|date=1995|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=978-0-8014-3075-6|language=en|access-date=2021-11-16|archive-date=2021-12-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211220154905/https://books.google.com/books?id=7X_Yy3jeN3sC&pg=PA153|url-status=live}}</ref>

}}

{{Sigmund Freud}}
{{Oedipus}}
{{Incest}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Castration Anxiety}}
[[Category:Castration]]
[[Category:Freudian psychology]]
[[Category:Men's health]]
[[Category:Human penis]]
[[Category:Complex (psychology)]]