The «phallus» as Erotic and Social Tie

The Question of the Phallus at the Center of the Discussion on Sexuality in Psychoanalysis

Abstract

During the twentieth century profound changes have taken place regarding the social place of man and woman. Th is has been particularly noticeable in the personal sexual interchanges, both hetero and homosexual. Science and technology have added modifi cations to contraceptive methods and child bearing possibilities. Th ese facts challenge psychoanalysis, specifically in its theory of sexuality, which is based upon the concept of infantile sexuality, phallic organization and Aedipus complex, whose conclusions don’t necessarily match with actual sexual legalities. This text elaborates mainly the notion of phallum in psychoanalysis, its erogenous roots of real excitement, its social imaginaries organized in phallocentric theories as well as its imaginaries in each subject, and finally its nature of object of desire, its function as organizer of interchanges. The text emphasizes in the distinction of phallum-penis in as much as in the phallic organization both sexes have real and enjoyable phallic erogeneity, where as they diff er in regard to bodily representations. The chances of representation will depend on the corporal diff erences, on each subject’s erogenous experience and the social value of the representations at stake.