ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses some dilemmas concerning the constitution of femininity and masculinity, their relation to the sense of belonging to one or the other gender, and how this relates to sexuality and the field of desire. The concept of re-signification in the Oedipus-castration complex comes into conflict with proposals that support the importance of pre-existing significations concerning sexual difference, mediated by maternal discourse. Maternal discourse, as an expression of unconscious desires, conscious and unconscious ideals and identifying proposals, includes recognition of the newborn's sex. The coexistence between the primordial, archaic feminine and masculine/feminine gender diversity occurs in psychic spaces corresponding to the pre-oedipal field, usually considered a pre-symbolic or pre-discourse field. For Aulagnier, the mother's identifying enunciations anticipate the child's capacity to understand their meaning. They are conveyed by a primary, structuring and necessary violence. It is also essential to consider some questions referring to a possible psychic representation of the feminine.
