The Absence of the Paternal Penis
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8336488 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Dianne Elise (0000-0002-1659-6908, Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1998 |
| Volume | 46 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 413-442 |
| Publication date | 1998-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0003-0651 • E-ISSN: 1941-2460 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/00030651980460020301 |
| PMID | 9684222 |
| OpenAlex | W2126603145 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 14 |
| References cited | 33 |
Girls' experiences of object loss, in conjunction with female anatomical structure, may lend themselves to a particular genital anxiety regarding openness and emptiness. The relational void in giving up the mother as love object may lead to an internal self-representation of a “hole” to be filled, much as the mouth sucks the pacifier in the absence of the nipple. This image may then be extended to the genital representation. In turning to the father, a girl may find that she lacks a relationship with him in the relational space opened up by the loss of the mother; the penis is symbolically withheld from her in the father's relational distance. This lack of sexual and relational gratification, it is proposed, may be schematized by a female as her body being empty of something. The father's absence—the absence of the paternal penis—may lead to an absence of the mental representation of the vagina and to an inhibition of the role the vagina then plays for a woman in sexual desire. Vaginal repression may serve to disguise object hunger that might otherwise be experienced as vaginal longing. An abbreviated clinical vignette, revolving around a masturbatory fantasy, is offered in partial illustration of the thesis
Art · Developmental psychology · Emptiness · Fantasy · Gratification · Object (grammar) · Object relations theory · Penis · Psychoanalysis · Psychoanalytic theory · Representation (politics) · Undoing · Vagina · Anatomy · Feminism, Gender, and Sexuality Studies · Medicine · Psychoanalysis and Psychopathology Research · Psychology · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications · Social Psychology
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Politicized Passions A Discussion of Dianne Elise's Essay
Woman and Desire Why Women MayNotWant to Want
Integrating Male and Female Elements in a Woman's gEnder Identity
Commentary
Film review
Female Childhood Orgasms
A Study of Preschool Children’s Linking of Genitals and Gender
Exploration of Women's Body Experiences Surrounding First Childbirth
The Danger in Deception
Moving from Within The Maternal
Sex and Shame
Body Ego and the Preoedipal Roots of Feminine Gender Identity
Representing Female Desire Within A Labial Framework of Sexuality
The Reproduction of Mothering
This Sex Which is Not One
What are little girls made of
The development of parental preferences in the first two years of life
A Conception of Femininity. 1
Aspects of Primary and Secondary Genital Feelings and Anxieties in Girls During the Preoedipal and Early Oedipal Phases
Primary Femininity, Bisexuality, and the Female Ego Ideal
The Inner Space of the Body Image
The Drive to Become Both Sexes
The Nature of Reality, the Meaning of Nothing, with an Addendum on Concentration
Inhibitions, Symptoms and Anxiety
On Nothing and Nobody with an Addendum on William Hogarth
Tribute To John Frosch
Psychology Of Women
Outside and Inside, Male and Female
What is New with Women
The Phallic Astration Complex and Primary Femininity
Vicissitudes of Female Sexuality
The Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association
Boundaries and Structure in Love Relations
Psychoanalytic Reflections on the Implications of Recent Physiological Studies of Female Orgasm
Vaginal Awareness in the Infancy and Childhood of Grils
Sadomasochism, Sexual Excitement, and Perversion
The Psycho-Analysis of Children
| Unique citing works | 14 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,54 |
| Citation span | 2000 - 2017 (18) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 10 |