ABSTRACT
Castration is a contested concept in psychoanalysis. In this article, Gherovici discusses several clinical examples in order to track the function of castration and its relation to anxiety in the unfolding of a psychoanalytic treatment. Contesting current assumptions that castration is a hindrance, the author suggests that castration functions as a welcome separation imposed by the Oedipal law that helps negotiate sexual difference, advances the embodiment of sexuality, which ultimately allows subjectivity and desire to emerge.
Acknowledgment
Some sections of this article appear in a revised version in P. Gherovici, Transgender Psychoanalysis, Routledge, 2017.
Notes
1 Johnsen, T. J., & O. Friborg. (Citation2015, May 11). The effects of cognitive behavioral therapy as an anti-depressive treatment is falling: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin. Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/bul0000015; Pragmatic randomized controlled trial of long-term psychoanalytic psychotherapy for treatment-resistant depression: The Tavistock Adult Depression Study.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Patricia Gherovici
Patricia Gherovici, Ph.D., is a psychoanalyst and analytic supervisor. Her books include The Puerto Rican Syndrome (Other Press: 2003), winner of the Gradiva Award and the Boyer Prize, Please Select Your Gender: From the Invention of Hysteria to the Democratizing of Transgenderism (Routledge: 2010), Lacan On Madness: Madness, Yes You Can't (with Manya Steinkoler; Routledge: 2015), Lacan, Psychoanalysis, and Comedy (with Manya Steinkoler; Cambridge University Press: 2016), and Transgender Psychoanalysis: A Lacanian Perspective on Sexual Difference (Routledge: 2017).