ABSTRACT
First read at the Sixth International Psycho-Analytical Congress in September 1920 at The Hague and published in English one year later, Stärcke’s paper is in part a response to van Ophuijsen’s views on the masculinity complex. He denies that in the masculinity complex of women, feelings of guilt are absent; it is just that they are projected onto others and expressed as embitterment and feelings of injustice. In thus questioning the rationale for van Ophuijsen’s distinction between masculinity complex and castration complex, Stärcke anticipates later developments proposed by Joan Riviere.
Stärcke is concerned by the same problem that led to van Ophuijsen’s position: the universality, in both men and women, of the castration complex. It is a problem because of the assumption that the fear of castration must be based on a concrete experience. In the case of the boy this experience is clearly the threat of the loss of the penis; but there can be no corresponding threat for the girl. His logic leads him to focus on the situation of the child at the breast and the event of weaning, since this alone can account for the universality of the complex. The paper focuses on exploring the reasons why this loss is displaced from the mouth onto the genitals.
Stärcke is the first to see weaning as the prototype of castration. Placing the origins of castration in the experience of the breast has the advantage for Stärcke that all the consequences of castration can be traced back to the concrete experiences of childhood. It of course also effaces the distinction between the sexes.
Stärcke’s line of thought is subsequently taken up by other participants in the controversy, such as Helene Deutsch.
