ABSTRACT
It is widely accepted that castration anxiety is a major feature in the psychology of men. Its appearance is traditionally said to be an aspect of the phallic or phallic-oedipal phase of development. Castration anxiety is therefore oŽen characterized as a “higher-level” or triadic fear and is contrasted with the more “primitive” or dyadic fears (and defenses) of earlier, preoedipal phases. Recent advances compel us to expand our perspective on this important subject. We have new and sometimes radically di†erent psychoanalytic views about women, for example, and new knowledge regarding the psychic construction of gender and self and the developmental evolution of psychic structure. We also have new arguments supporting the conceptual primacy of psychic reality, which many contemporary observers consider more appropriate than material reality as a frame of reference for psychoanalysis.
