•This follows the
Oedipal phase
•Penis envy, hotly debated becomes the girls prerogative whilst boys, if they remain attached to mother, fear castration by the father.
•Girls are also left with a fear that they have already been castrated in punishment for remaining attached to the mother and thus, competing with the father for the mother
•Later interpretations by feminists redresses the imbalance of phallic significance of the penis by claiming a position of ‘womb envy’ - similar to penis envy except for the realisation that boys will never bear children which results in a similar fear of castration.
•Both result in identification of
a lack