Sexual trauma and castration anguish: Freudian courses in light of Lacan's contributions

Abstract

The objective of the present study is to articulate the definition of sexual trauma and castration anguish according to Freudian texts and Lacan's contributions. For Freud, these definitions follow psychoanalysis as a field that investigates the unconscious. The unconscious indicates the fundamental emptiness that moves the desire, the absence of the object. Fantasy, as a desire guide, represents the permanence of the missing object, the alienation of the ego within the ideal of the phallic pleasure. Castration anguish works as a sign for ego defense mechanisms to come into play, in which the last instance is the phallic pleasure. This, articulated to castration anguish, comes as a "non trespassing border" of psychoanalysis. Lacan's proposal is to go beyond castration anguish, returning, on his way, to the definition of the sexual trauma.