Castration

by Ivan Ward

From fashion to football, in our dreams and epiphanies, through jealous rages and moments of genius, the effects of castration anxiety, so claims Ivan Ward, are ever-present. Freud's famous 'castration complex' is met with continually in analytic experience. Yet it seems an unbelievable idea. Taking his evidence from myth, clinical practice and the sexual theories of children, Freud established the castration complex as one of the determining factors of human sexual desire and personality development. Ideas in Psychoanalysis continues to go where no other books dare Expertly written by the series editor, Ivan Ward Ask your Faber rep about extra discounts for bulk buys with Ideas series

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction

80 pages, Paperback

First published July 23, 1999

About the author

Ivan Ward is the Director of Education at the Freud Museum, London, the series editor of 'Ideas in Psychoanalysis' and author of 'Phobia' and 'Introducing Psychoanalysis'.

Reviews

[Lastborncat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Can't say good or bad due to lack of knowledge. Interesting nonetheless. I felt metaphysically castrated before reading, now I want to castrate my father.

[Donald · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book to get a simple introduction to Freud's concept of the castration complex/castration anxiety. After finishing the book, I decided that either a) Freud's concept doesn't make much sense and is rooted in loosely connected anecdotes and incredibly odd literary/cultural analysis or b) that Ivan Ward doesn't know what he is talking about and misrepresented the idea. Maybe a combination of both a and b.

In any case, I am not convinced that this idea of castration anxiety is useful for explaining anything, but I'm pretty sure being an old-school Freudian would be a hoot.