Falocentrism: what it is and what it tells us about our society.

The term "phallocentrism" refers to the exercise to place the phallus at the center of explanations about the psychic and sexual constitution. This exercise has been present in much of the scientific and philosophical theories of the West, it is even visible in social organization. As a concept, phallocentrism emerged in the first half of the twentieth century to criticize different practices and knowledge, among which are psychoanalysis, philosophy and science. Next we will see in more detail what phallogocentrism is, where this concept comes from and what have been some of the consequences that its application has had.

Source.

Falocentrism: the phallus as the original symbol.

As the term itself indicates, phallocentrism is the tendency to place the "phallus" at the center of the explanations about the subjective constitution; concept that can be used as a synonym for "penis", but which is also used to designate a symbolic referent.

The latter comes mainly from Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis, but is later taken up and criticized by some currents of philosophy, as well as by feminist theories and movements, which claim a different understanding of the psyche and sexuation.

Background and development of the concept.

At the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, Sigmund Freud developed a theory of psychosexual development in which he proposed that the psychic constitution of subjects passes through the awareness of sexual difference.

This awareness brings with it two possibilities: having, or lacking, the valued object. This object is the penis, and carries a symbolic value that later (in Lacanian psychoanalysis) is transferred to other elements beyond the anatomical structure.

From infancy, who carries the penis enters a phase of psychic structuring based on the threat of castration (ie, to lose the phallus). On the contrary, those who do not have it go through a structuring process based mainly on this lack, which generates a constitutive envy that was called "penis envy".

Thus, the phallus was at the center of this theory of psychosexual development, arguing that the female psychic constitution occurred as a negation of the masculine, or else as a supplement to it.

The phallus, later understood as a symbolic reference; and its carrier, the male subject, thus positions itself at the center of explanations about psychic and sexual development.

First reviews.

The reactions and oppositions to the psychoanalytic theory of psychosexual development occurred both outside and within the same circle of disciples of Freud. One of them, Karen Horney, critically criticized the theory of penis envy, and argued that the psychic constitution of women was not necessarily traversed by such resentment.

Like Melanie Klein, Horney argued that there is a primary femininity, which is not a derivation or denial of the male psychosexual constitution.

Already in the 1920s, the psychoanalyst and later biographer of Sigmund Freud, Ernest Jones, takes up the criticisms that Klein and Horney had made to penis envy theory, to argue that the psychoanalytic postulates made by men were heavily laden with "phallocentric" vision.

The latter was what formally gave rise to the concept of "phallocentrism", and since Freudian psychoanalysis did not distinguish between the phallus and the penis at first, the term was used exclusively to speak of the empowerment of men.