What is penis envy?

Introduction

Sigmund Freud
, the Austrian founder of psychoanalysis, formulated a theory of psychosexual development. The energy that drove this development was called libido, sexualized energy. This theory was biologically oriented and rested on the assumption that the goal of female development was to achieve what the male possessed, namely a penis. Freud believed that discovering the absence of a penis caused profound emotional injury and became the basis for future personality development in the female.

Freud’s Biological Theory

In 1905, in “Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality,” Freud stated that girls notice that boys have penises and, as a result, experience intense feelings of envy and wish to be boys. Later he added that both boys and girls develop a sexual theory in which both originally had a penis, and boys assume that girls originally possessed a penis but lost it through castration. This fear in boys of meeting the same fate leads to the resolution of the Oedipus complex, with the boy relinquishing his sexual feelings toward his mother and identifying with his father. Males then adopt a low opinion of females due to their lack of penises.

This envy that girls experience is supposed to profoundly influence their future personality development in several ways. Overcome by powerful feelings of envy, they feel unfairly treated. According to Freud, anatomy is destiny, in that girls want to possess the male sex organ. First they seize on the idea that the clitoris can serve as a penis substitute. Eventually, they are forced to concede that the clitoris is not an adequate substitute and experience a profound trauma as a result. One of the possible outcomes of this trauma is the development of the masculine protest. Girls may assume masculine personality characteristics or, as adults, may withdraw from sexual experience entirely to avoid powerful feelings of inadequacy.

When girls discover that all females lack a penis, hostility develops toward the mother, who is seen as having deprived them of this sex organ. They then wish for their father to give them either a penis or a baby, which serves as a penis substitute. The discovery of this wish was considered critical by Freud, who viewed it as a sign that bedrock had been reached in psychoanalytic treatment and that termination was at hand.

Another example of the importance that Freud placed on penis envy was his postulating a direct connection between masochism (the sexual pleasure derived from pain) and female personality development. In his attempt to demonstrate this connection, he selected penis envy as the first experience leading to this conclusion.

Post-Freudian Elaboration

Erik H. Erikson
, a pupil of Freud's who emigrated to the United States, combined ego psychology with what he called life-span theory. In this theory, drives or instincts are significant, but the emphasis is on interaction with the significant people in one’s own environment. Erikson accepted Freud’s formulation that girls experience trauma at discovering their lack of a penis, but he differed from Freud in that he emphasized not abnormal behavior but rather the healthy, adaptive processes in the ego of the girl. He shifted away from the trauma of loss to the healthy ego resources that lead to a woman having a positive view of herself. Anatomy was important to Erikson because it provides a framework for male and female experience, but group membership, history, and individual personality all contribute to female personality development. He felt that while male and female ego processes have much in common, the differences in male and female experience and development should be identified and studied.

Karen Horney
, a German-born psychoanalyst who emigrated to the United States, felt that this model was too restrictive and needed to expand to include the role of culture in personality development. She recognized that it was entirely possible that girls experience some feelings of envy due to their lack of a penis. However, she also noticed in her clinical practice that boys also experience envy in relation to girls. She found that boys envied girls’ breasts and their ability to produce children when adult.

Horney stated that, in classical psychoanalysis, the libidinal development of women was evaluated from a male perspective, and she questioned whether, since observations are gender influenced, these formulations could be accurate. She emphasized that basing female development on male standards was at best incomplete, since female development includes events not found in male development, such as pregnancy and childbirth.

Horney stated that some penis envy may be entirely normal. Having the opportunity to contact his genitals through urination, the boy may find it easier to satisfy his sexual curiosity; the fact that the boy routinely contacts his genitals may make it more acceptable to take the steps toward masturbation. However, she felt that these feelings of envy in women would ordinarily not lead to feelings of inferiority or the development of the masculine protest. She found that Freud’s formulation of the masculine protest was based on his study of neurotic women.

Horney stated that conditions other than penis envy would be necessary for a female to reject her gender. One such condition was if the father rejected his daughter’s femaleness. Another condition was if the mother projected such a negative image of the female role that the girl did not wish to identify with that image.

Horney emphasized that culture plays a significant role in female personality development. She felt that girls are often subtly and sometimes harshly made to feel inferior and that due to the masculine nature of the culture, girls may be excluded from occupations and other opportunities, which would contribute to feelings of inferiority. She pointed out that in a culture that demeans women sexually, makes it unacceptable for women to be assertive, and makes it difficult for women to be economically independent, it would be easier for women to feel inferior, not because of a lack of a penis, but because of the prevailing attitudes that culture holds toward women.

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