ABSTRACT
Within the psychoanalytic community it was not the Oedipus complex but the views Freud subsequently developed on female sexuality which elicited fierce opposition, in particular his paper on the anatomical distinction between the sexes (1925) in which he describes the wound to a woman’s narcissism for her lack of a penis: ‘she develops, like a scar, a sense of inferiority’. She blames her mother for her lack and abandons masturbation which reminds her of her inadequacy: ‘the little girl’s recognition of the anatomical distinction between the sexes forces her away from masculinity and masculine masturbation on to new lines which lead to the development of femininity’ (Freud 1925:256). It is only at this point, and as a consequence of her recognition of lack, according to Freud, that the girl turns to her father and hence enters her Oedipus complex. Hence, femininity, for Freud, is a purely psychological development based on this original disappointment. It is not, as it is for other theorists, a consequence of a biological drive.
