Printed in Great Britain by Gocke Cansever† PROBLEM

In his writings on sexual development, Freud postulated that around the fourth or fifth year of life, the genital concentration of all sexual excitement is achieved and the boy's interest in the genitals attains a dominant significance. At this phase of infantile genital organization, the phallic stage, the sexual organs gain a great narcissistic value. The fear that something might happen to this prized organ is called castration anxiety. Castration anxiety gains significance in the child's life also when related to the nature of relations characterizing the phallic stage. According to Freud, at this stage of development, the boys experiences strong genital strivings for his mother and death wishes for his father, conceptualized as the Oedipus complex. The discovery of sexual differences between boys and girls raises the expectations of castration for himself, as a retaliation for the forbidden sexual desires toward his mother (Freud, S.,1920, 1953). Clinical observations by psychoanalysts, evidence from anthropology, religious and folk myths, artistic creations and various other sources suggest that the narcissistic fear over the loss of the genital organ leads to the renunciation of the Oedipal attachments. This resolution ushers in a new developmental stage- the latency period