Procrastination is multifaceted, as are the reasons for its origin. This article examines the influence of the leading anxiety of the Oedipal period of a person's psychosexual development – the fear of punishment (the fear of castration) on the emergence or intensification of procrastination. The fear of being punished or undervalued gives rise to unconscious inhibition, postponing important tasks "for later."Keywords: System modeling methods; Hellinger family arrangements; gender discrimination; abuse; Nazi fascism.

Female characters in movies can be studied using Karen Horney's feminine psychology study. Horney refuted the understanding of traditional psychological theories on women about castration complexes and penis envy, which later resulted in female inferiority. This research is important to clarify the existence of women in movies using feminine psychology theory. The research aimed to identify how female characters are represented in the movie Naga by Meshal Al Jaser, particularly about their neurotic desires—typically associated with men and to describe the forms of treatment or behavior that reflect these neurotic desires. The research applied a descriptive qualitative research method with Karen Horney's feminine psychology analysis approach. In obtaining data, researchers took primary and secondary data sources. The researcher also applied watch, read, and listen techniques to collect data. The research used three data analysis procedures: data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion drawing. The results show nine data from the dialogues and scenes of the movie Naga that contain neurotic desires to become men in female characters, such as taking off her veil, slapping a man, being disgusted by kissing, forcing a man, smoking, rebelling, commanding a man, threatening a man, and insulting a man. This research provides a new perspective that neurosis can form a reaction to social injustice, especially in a patriarchal society.

In this essay, I propose to consider the connection between performance and a feminine form of subjectivisation by indicating the borderlinking between contemporary performance and psychoanalysis. Performance will be approached as an event of co-becoming through the filter of the metafeminist theory of Bracha L. Ettinger. My intention is to contest the hegemonic model of a singular and autonomous subjectivity and undermine the phallocentric thinking that reproduces the binary logic of self/other to suggest that an alternative model of subjectivisation, rooted in the feminine, can be energised through performance-based practices. To do so, I will argue that performance is an embodied encounter-event that suggests a feminine model of becoming-with in order to contest the phallic logic of identity and desire that follows the paradigm of castration anxiety. The Ettingerian theory illuminates the constitution of a being-together and offers a feminine vision in the field of desire, subjectivity and art by opening the space of visibility with transconnecting and co-affecting qualities via artworking. Stressing the levels of malleability and jointness of the performing bodies, subjectivity will be approached as a participatory and ongoing process of performing and reforming the self to inform the oedipal model of identification, gendering and sexualisation. The matrixial sphere will be first analyzed and, on a second level, activated in practice by examining Tino Sehgal’s performance Kiss. Antigone will be revisited as a paradigm of subject-Woman which radically contests the phallic structures to shed light on another complex, a feminine supplementary perspective to Oedipus imbued by the mother-daughter relationship towards the emancipation of desire and the construction of new trans-connected worlds.

Circumcision is a practice that is commonly implemented across the globe for reasons pertaining to medical necessity, social attitudes, and religious beliefs. This procedure, when performed on young boys, results in the infliction of harm upon the penis, thereby giving rise to the development of castration anxiety. Castration anxiety can be defined as an overwhelming fear of damaging or losing the penis during the phallic period, which, according to Sigmund Freud's theory of psychosexual development, occurs between the ages of 3 and 6 years. The present study aims to compare social and sexual measures in later life between individuals who underwent circumcision during and beyond the phallic period. Men who had previously undergone circumcision were included in the study. The participants completed a series of questionnaires designed to assess various aspects of their health and well-being. These included the International Index of Erectile Function, the male genital self-image scale, and the gender role attitudes scale. A total of 216 male participants who had previously undergone circumcision were included in the study. A notable absence of substantial variance was evident in the domains of sexual functionality, perception of the genital region, and gender roles, among subjects who underwent circumcision during and following the phallic period. The results of the study refute the hypothesis that circumcision should not be performed during the phallic period, and thus contradict the position of psychiatrists that this procedure should not be carried out during this stage due to the anxiety it would cause.

Orhan Pamuk's novel The Red Haired Woman delves into the complexities of identity desire and the unconscious mind through the character of Cem. By employing a Lacanian analysis, this qualitative research paper aims to explore how Cem's psyche is shaped by the interplay between the Symbolic, the Imaginary, and the Real. Drawing from Lacanian concepts such as the mirror stage castration anxiety and the Oedipus complex, this paper sheds light on the underlying psychological factors influencing Cem's actions and relationships within the novel. By delving into these Lacanian concepts we gain a deeper understanding of Cem's character and the overall themes explored in Orhan Pamuk's novel. The novel invites the readers to contemplate the intricacies of the human psyche and the perpetual pursuit of identity and desire in the face of societal constraints. Pamuk’s narrative, set against the backdrop of Turkey’s socio-political landscape, intricately weaves together themes of fatherhood, patricide, and the search for meaning. By unraveling the symbolic and imaginary dimensions of the narrative, this study illuminates the novel's deeper layers of meaning. It offers insights into the human condition as portrayed through Pamuk’s literary lens. Pamuk intricately intertwines themes of patricide, fatherhood, and existential quest, providing fertile ground for a Lacanian reading.

Le primat du phallus, talon d’Achille de l’appareil psychique ? Réflexions autour du cancer de la prostate

This paper explores Geetanjali Shree’s postmodern novel Tomb of Sand which falls in the liminal space between the real and the fantastic. Her novel interrogates the relevance of borders and boundaries; not only the geographical and psychological borders in post-partition India but borders defining gender identities, human and non-human worlds, familiar and strange. Shree provides a feminist lens to grasp the concept of Freud’s theory of the uncanny. Freud in his essay The Uncanny explains that the uncanny is not something unfamiliar but the familiar which is kept hidden or repressed. He explores the various dimensions of the uncanny like animism, magic, déjà vu, doubling, repetition in thoughts and language, fear of castration, queerness and return to the maternal body. Geetanjali Shree underscores how the feeling of uncanny can be associated with dissonance and strangeness in moving beyond or challenging the socially constructed habits and comportments of gendered bodies. The feeling of being out of sorts with one’s own body, breaking down boundaries and rules constructed by society, challenging the normative ideal and unearthing what has been silenced in culture, engenders the feeling of uncanny.

Farewell My Concubine, a 1993 Chinese drama film directed by Chen Kaige and starring Leslie Cheung, Zhang Fengyi, and Gong Li, is adapted from the novel of the same name by Leslie Cheung. Douzi, a boy whose stage name is Cheng Dieyi, plays the concubine Consort Yu, and his senior fellow trouper Shitou, whose stage name is Duan Xiaolou, plays the hero Xiang Yu in Peking Opera Farewell My Concubine. In life, Cheng Dieyi falls in love with Duan Xiaolou just like Consort Yu deeply loves Xiang Yu. In traditional Eastern culture and Western culture, gender is binary, that is, a person is either male or female, and there is nothing in between. In the traditional Chinese society with a dichotomous view of gender, Cheng Dieyi has a queer tendency. Based on Sigmund Jacques’ and Lacan’s theories of the Oedipus complex and castration complex, this article explores how Cheng Dieyi’s experiences of “castration” leads to his gender misperception in three aspects: Cheng Dieyi’s family background, troupe experience, and self-fantasy.

This research explores the complexity of the BL industry, its origin, its evolution, and the psychological mechanisms behind its popularity among women. Since the introduction of Japanese BL culture into China in the 1990s and has developed rapidly, which formed a strong female ideology and a mode of network as the main communication space in the process of localization and contributed to the emergence of the Fujoshi group. However, behind BLs seemingly powerful narrative lurks unconscious misogyny and anti-feminism. The article will use Lacans mirror stage theory, Freuds castration complex theory, and Ueno Chizukos Misogyny to intensely discuss the psychological mechanism and the problems existing in the epidemic process of BL and the attraction of Fujoshi culture, which reveals the BL provides a fantasy world where women can project their desire and seek an idealized, egalitarian model of love. At the same time, binary gender expectations are also prevalent in BL culture, reflecting traditional gender stereotypes. It suggests that some BL creators may harbor self-loathing towards their own gender and envy towards men.

Psychoanalysis primarily concerns itself with literature through the representation of the conscious and unconscious minds of characters within storylines. Sigmund Freud’s theories are often reflected in literary works, using concepts such as the pleasure principle associated with the id, the reality principle linked to the ego, castration anxiety, and defense mechanisms. Other literary theories, like reader-response theory, focus on how texts are read and interpreted by readers. Norman N. Holland suggests that understanding a literary work involves not only reading the text but also considering the author’s biography, if known, to grasp how they create their masterpieces. Literary psychoanalysis explores the psychological and emotional aspects the author embeds in their works. Even though many authors are remarkably discreet about their past, their experiences may surface through recurring themes or phrases in their writings. Joker is a film released in 2019, directed by Todd Phillips and starring Joaquin Phoenix, who won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role. This paper conducts a psychoanalytic study of the character Joker, whose real name is Arthur Fleck. Arthur is a stand-up comedian aspiring to be the world’s most famous comedian, despite suffering from a medical condition that causes sudden and uncontrollable laughter, compounded by traumatic events in his childhood.

The theoretical basis of this work are the ideas of Maidi U., Mitchell J., Motz A., Pattis-Zoya E., Reinhold Joseph S., Langer M., Leisinger-Boleber M. The object of research: the phenomenon of psychogenic female infertility in the psychoanalytic understanding. The article shows aspects of the psychogenesis of female psychogenic infertility: the image of the mother, destructiveness and psychogenic infertility, denial of femininity and gender-role identity, violation of identification with the mother and identification with the "dead mother", transgenerational transmission and psychogenic infertility, unconscious conflicts and the Medea complex. These aspects are reflected in two psychoanalytic studies, the results of which are briefly reflected in this publication. The results showed the presence of common signs for women with psychogenic infertility: 1. In fantasies, the future child is endowed with expectations aimed at satisfying a deficient mother; 2. Women have a violation of gender-role identity - identification with the father; the desire to take the place of the father, playing partner and parent roles; 3. Ambivalent perception of the maternal figure; the image of the mother is idealized; 4. Women have a false self, pseudoedipality; 5. Women have a false femininity based not on identification with the mother, but on based on a primitive imitation of her. Identification with the "dead mother" is impossible; 6. The presence of a castration complex in women, reinforced by identification with the father. As a result, the process of childbirth causes horror, correlated with castration, which is denied and covered up by the desire to have a child; 7. The presence of a separation complex, where separation from a "dead mother" is not possible, because then one person will be "dead". 8. Parentification, "dead mother", "dead father", transgenerational transmission of conflicts "crypts and ghosts", untreated traumatization and unlived grief. The leading events in the life history of women suffering from psychogenic infertility are the experience of loss and violence.

ABSTRACT Freudian psychoanalysis offers us often neglected but unique and very fruitful possibilities for an original interpretation of sport. In this article we first look at some basic Freudian concepts, such as the role of sexuality, the unconscious and dreams. In doing so, it becomes clear that sport can and should be interpreted in a similar way to Freud’s interpretation of dreams. Just as dreams need to be decoded and interpreted, sport needs to be decoded and interpreted in order to understand it. On this basis, we then build a system for understanding sport that also incorporates the other important concepts of Freud’s psychoanalysis. The concepts of repression, symptom formation and the role of symbols prove to be particularly relevant for understanding sport. Decoding symbols in sport (e.g. scoring a goal) shows us that sport is a derivative of the libido and has an unconscious sexual structure. Unveiling the hidden unconscious sexuality of sport shows us that (male) sport was created for the sake of women, so that men (as winners) could gain a privileged status in female desire. Sport turns out to be a symbolic substitute for the satisfaction of human sexual needs. However, to better understand the competitive nature of sport, one must include the Oedipus and castration complex. It is castration anxiety that drives sporting competition. Victory is symbolically linked to the castration of the opponent. Next we turn to Freud’s concept of transference. It helps us to understand the complexity of the relationship between the athlete and the coach. This has a strong influence on athletic success. When things do not go as planned for an athlete and unexpected injuries occur, Freud’s concept of ‘advantage through illness’ can help us understand the athlete’s ‘escape into injury’.

This study's goal was to examine, expand upon, and update a chapter that was first printed in a relatively small number of copies of the book titled Essays and Research on Disability1. Thomas was the sole author of the original chapter, which discussed how attitudes about disability develop from a psychoanalytic and sociobiological perspective. Kin, reciprocal, and induced altruism were the first three altruism principles in sociobiology that were covered in this study. Then, Karen Horney's neo-Freudian viewpoint (i.e., less emphasis on sex and focused more on the social environment and culture regarding personality development) and traditional Freudian theories (such as castration anxiety, loss of love, and loss of the object) were tied to sociobiology, and this relationship was further addressed in terms of the evolution of attitude toward handicap. Then, recommendations were offered across a broad range of rehabilitation counseling services and educational practices that might be improved by using these insights, both clinically and politically. Finally, the present study extends this discussion by addressing similar concerns in the areas of counseling service priorities, multicultural rehabilitation counseling, and identity politics.

Sexuality, Disability, and Aging: Queer Temporalities of the Phallus

Abstract: This review of ten articles, books, and chapters on the mythic Medusa and genital display figures illustrates Medusa’s petrifying and apotropaic gaze and her engulfing vulva, or eye blazoning her matrixial force, as her severed head demonstrates her abiding pro-creative, indomitable force. Through a history of women held under scrutiny while feared by patriarchy, with men projecting their own fear of castration onto them, the Medusa figure emerges as stunningly uncastrated, asserting her force and returning her stony gaze in the reflexive action pivotal to this myth. Objectified under the male gaze, her vulva faces the viewer, her inspirational force born through the birth of Pegasus even as she is crushed in rape and death. The mythic Medusa and vulva display women persistently retain their hold on the male unconscious in rising above castigation, asserting their amazing procreative force over life and death, enabled through Medusa’s stunning tale and transfixing gaze.

Reviewed by: Murdered Father, Dead Father and Other Work by Rosine Perelberg Rosemary Davies (bio) Rosine Perelberg, Murdered Father, Dead Father and Other Work “Tommy, go and clear up your toys now,” Jake barked at his three-year-old son. Seemingly unmoved by his father’s order, Tommy shifted closer to his mother and asked, “Mummy, when is Daddy going to die?” Encapsulated in such a simple if dramatic encounter are the complex derivatives of Freud’s Oedipus complex. As outlined by Rosine Perelberg in her work over the last decades, these complexities cover “the murder of the father, identification and super ego, the setting up of the ego ideal, castration complex, desexualization and sublimation” (2016, p. 126). In one of her three books of selected papers, Murdered Father, Dead Father (2016), she counters what she sees as a drift away from a recognition of the primacy of the Oedipus complex. It is a compelling endeavor, placing little Tommy’s psychic construction of the world center stage. Perelberg’s prolific psychoanalytic writing is characterized by an invitation to absorb complexity but also to associate freely. In her clinical practice demonstrated throughout her work by clinical accounts, she describes how there is no place for the omnipotent analyst, but rather the analyst inaugurates a process (Perelberg, 2016, p. 76). Clinical work is characterized by such things as the open interpretation, the special form of listening, and a scrupulous and compassionate attention to the patient’s lived experience. My contribution to a wider knowledge of Perelberg’s work is offered in the context of “inaugurating a process.” Perelberg provides a rigorously argued psychoanalytic theory, never too far away from the consulting room. Throughout her work, Perelberg (2020) interrogates the centrality of what she calls the myth of origins, how can one be made of two: This is a theme that permeates Freud’s work, as he emphasises mankind’s concerns with its origins and interprets [End Page 793] the riddle of the Sphinx as being about where babies come from . . . The foundation of time in myths is, in so many cultures, related to intercourse between the couple. (pp. 168–169) In her account of her own origins, her 50-year journey from young anthropologist in Brazil, steeped in a rich cultural tradition, to internationally known training analyst and recent president of the British Psychoanalytic Society, she writes: It is striking to see how many of these ideas awaited for so many years until they acquired their full significance for me as a psychoanalyst as a real example of après coup that indicates how the seeds planted in the past acquire full meaning in the future retrospectively. (Perelberg, 2009, p. 249) Furthermore, thinking of her own origins, we can read her scholarship as a homage to Freud, but I think there is something also of a homage to André Green, a titan who straddled the British and French psychoanalytic traditions. Perelberg’s work has been crucial in introducing an Anglophone audience to his work. She respectfully acknowledges other British colleagues who have contributed to this richness. In particular, Green rendered Lacan’s recovery of the Freudian concept of Nachträglichkeit/the après coup,1 comprehensible to contemporary psychoanalysts. In my reading of her work, I trace three—how could it be another number in the writings of an author who elaborates so much of the oedipal dimension of our work?—essential themes of her work. First, she engages with the temporal dimension of psychoanalysis, initially explored by her in a paper based on her infant observation as a candidate (Perelberg, 2008, p. 181). Perelberg (2008) argues that Freud describes not an overdetermined linear temporal progression but many faceted movements to and fro, forward and backward: “There are at least seven dimensions—development, regression, fixation, repetition compulsion, the return of the repressed, the time-lessness [End Page 794] of the unconscious and après coup—like a heptagon in movement” (p. 32). Crucially this conceptualization of the bi-directionality of the nature of Freudian time does much to counter what has been misunderstood in Freud’s work as over determinism: this “rules out linear determinism and thus emphasizes the relevance of the...

HBO’s massively successful and influential crime drama series The Sopranos helped to usher in a new wave of complex, boundary-pushing narratives by confronting audiences with a fresh and subversive portrait of crime, family, and the legacy of Freud in American culture at the turn of the 21st century. The series centers around the daily life of mobster Tony Soprano as he navigates the challenges posed to his business by the RICO Act, to his family and marriage by his double life, and to his mental health by his deteriorating sense of power and identity. Previous analyses of the series have recognized that Freudian psychoanalysis is a major theme in the series as Tony visits psychiatrist Dr. Jennifer Melfi to find the root causes of his depression and anxiety, but few have produced psychoanalytic readings of the series itself. Through a scene-by-scene analysis of the series pilot through a Freudian lens, this essay examines how the characterization of Tony (and others) engages with the Freudian themes of castration anxiety and the Oedipus complex in a self-conscious manner and comes to the conclusion that Tony’s neurosis is driven by an unconscious resentment of his mother.

Murakami’nin Sahilde Kafka ve Kumandanı Öldürmek romanlarındaki başkişilerin bastırılmış duygu ve kaygılarının Freud’un Oedipus kompleksi, kastrasyon anksiyetesi ve tekinsizlik kavramı bağlamında irdelenmesi bu çalışmanın amacını oluşturmaktadır. Romanların anlatıcısı konumunda olan bu başkişilerin ortak özelliklerine bakıldığında her iki karakterin de toplumdan izole olmuş, hayatlarındaki önemli birilerini yitirmiş ve benliklerini bulmak isteyen bireyler oldukları görülmektedir. Bu çalışmada başkişilerin psişelerindeki oedipal çatışmalar üzerinde durularak barındırdıkları ortak anlamlar irdelenecek ve bu romanlardaki tekinsizlik duygusunun nasıl ve nerede ortaya çıktığı tartışılacaktır. Murakami’nin Sahilde Kafka romanında Kafka adlı başkişi babasının yapmış olduğu oedipal kehanet sonucunda Oedipus’un kaderinden kaçamayarak ensest ihlali ve baba katlini gerçeküstü bir anlatı yoluyla gerçekleştirmektedir. Murakami’nin Kumandanı Öldürmek romanındaki başkişinin kumandanı öldürmesi baba katlini sembolize etmekte ve karısı ile onun izni olmadan rüyasında ilişkiye girmesi ise sembolik bir yasak ihlalini anımsatmaktadır. Bu çalışmada her iki romandaki karakterlerin yitirdiklerini yerine koymak ve benliklerini inşa etmek için oedipal kehaneti yerine getirdikleri sonucuna varılmıştır. Her iki romanda da başkişilerin Freudyen tekinsizlik duyguları uyandıracak bir yolculuğa çıktıkları gözlemlenmektedir. Sahilde Kafka’da başkişinin çıktığı yolculuk tekinsizlik duyguları uyandırırken Kumandanı Öldürmek romanındaki başkişi ise yeraltındaki karanlık ve dar tünellere girmek zorunda kaldığı yolculuğu sırasında tekinsizlik duygusunu deneyimlemektedir. Bu yolculukların başkişilerin gördükleri rüyaların veya zaman zaman kurdukları hayallerin ortak özelliklerine bakıldığında karakterlerin bastırdıkları bilinçdışı korkuları ve oedipal arzularını yansıttıkları ortaya çıkmaktadır.

This article builds upon Laura Mulvey’s idea of the Male Gaze to conduct a feminist reading of the video game series Batman: Arkham (2009-2015). It does so by using Bechdel Test to analyze the depiction of the major female characters appearing in the series. The article investigates why portrayal of the women characters in video games is always problematic and how Batman: Arkham franchise becomes yet another transmedia text that fails in showing its female characters accurately. The textual analysis of the games confirms that the video game industry protects and perpetuates male privilege through the hypersexualization and objectification of female characters. As a result, the study further identifies a noticeable lack of compelling female characters in the video game series. Thus, the investigation calls for the necessity of a neutral and unbiased counter gaze for the legitimate portrayal of the women characters in the video game narratives as well as proper gender representation in the fast-growing game industry.

This article discusses the ambiguous representation of the merchant Antonio in William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. Antonio’s relationship to his father figure is projected through the hatred and sadness in Shylock’s figure. However, Antonio's father figure is completely absent in the play. Thus, his inexplicable anger towards Shylock may reveal primitive feelings towards his father figure. His masochistic desire and fear of castration, which can potentially be fulfilled by Shylock, increase his anxiety to his father figure. He accepts the idea of castration and imagines himself a castrated ram. However, the cause of such anxiety is constantly denied by Antonio, but projected into the play’s texture in verbal slips and contradictions. Thus, the other characters are depicted as Antonio’s correlate figures, mirroring similar feelings felt by him.