ABSTRACT
Repudiating the feminine sphere would appear to relate to opposition to any kind of opening up as regards the drives. The feminine sphere and its repudiation become an insurmountable riddle only if they are not referred to an indisputable theoretical and clinical fact: the constant pressure of the sexual drive and the violence with which this strikes the ego. The sexual feminine sphere is created when a man demolishes his "repudiation" of it, whatever the cost, by virtue of his potency. The various means of access to the difference between the sexes—the paradigm of "difference" as such—provided by the Oedipus conflict are the perception of anatomical distinctions, castration anxiety, and the construction of infantile sexual theories. They include also the integration of the primal scene fantasy, with its references to the difference between the sexes as regards the parental couple and the difference between generations.
