ABSTRACT
In this chapter, a detailed analysis of the development of phallic masculinity is carried out. A psychogenetic explanation of phallic masculinity is suggested, organized around the following three psychological challenges in the development of boys: (i) the challenge concerning human existential conditions in terms of helplessness and dependence, (ii) the threat of castration from the preoedipal mother and (iii) the threat of castration in relation to the father. It is primarily the first point that is discussed in detail as it has not received the attention in the literature that it really deserves. The first challenge can be seen as a kind of background feeling that the boy is carrying within himself in facing the other two challenges, which deal with threats of castration in different forms. This existential challenge or dimension involves human being’s original predicament of total helplessness and dependence. The analysis undertaken in this chapter shows that phallic masculinity implies both a denial of existential conditions and a rejection of the mother’s containing function of these same circumstances. In other words, phallic masculinity is a reaction against humanity’s frail predicament and its need for nurturing. In order to illustrate this, a couple of episodes portrayed in the book My Struggle: A Man in Love by Karl Ove Knausgård are used.
