Sigmund Freud: Position on Sexes and Homosexuality

Running head: SIGMUND FREUD
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Explain Freud’s position on what it is that divides the sexes, elaborating on ideas by
referencing some of Lacan’s texts and schemata
Introduction:
Sigmund Freud have presented extraordinary theories to the field of psychology that have
helped understanding crucial concepts of society. Many of his theories were controversial due to
its subject and the relation of the subject with the time period (Sullivan, 2013). Sigmund Freud’s
perspective on women have certainly done the same, stirring controversy during his own lifetime
as well as considerable debate even today. Freud has revolutionized modern thinking with his
thinking and perception. One of the most popular theory of Freud was the development of the
process psychoanalysis, the conscious, careful analysis performed piece by piece of neurotic
behavior in an individual with the view to break down the complex. It is certainly one of the
method today, that psychologist use I order to understand the complex behavior of human. Freud
like many other thinkers have detailed his opinion on sex, sexuality, gender and queer. The paper
aims to discuss Freud’s position on the factor that divides the sexes in references to Lacan’s texts
and schema along with psychogenesis in regard to the case of homosexuality.
Sigmund Freud:
Born into a Jewish family in Freiburgin the year 1856, Moravia Sigmund Freud was an
Austrian neurologist who is widely known as the father of psychoanalysis. He was not only a
neurologist but also a physiologist, medical doctor, psychologist and an influential thinker of the
early twentieth century (Engler, 2013). His famous psychoanalysis is a method that is used
treating mental illness and also a theory that provides explanation of human behavior. According
to Freud, a great influence occurs on human’s the adult lives by their events of childhood. For an

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example, a person may have anxiety if that person is exposed to traumatic experience in
childhood. Freud’s perception was highly prone to controversies and one such controversy is his
perception on women that he presented in his papers (Gardiner, 2018).
Significant concepts:
The term gender, sex, sexuality, gender-role and queer are inter-related terms that have
link to each other terms can be defined distinctively and it is important to understand the term in
order to understand the concept of sexuality and gender that has been presented by Sigmund
Freud. Sex can be defined as the person’s biological sex, the anatomy of an individual’s
reproductive system which often determine the social roles based on the sex of the person. While
sex refers to the biological characteristics and features, gender can be defined as the set of
characteristics or traits that are associated with the biological sex. Sexuality can be defined as the
entire way a person expresses self as a sexual being (American Psychological Association,
2015). A person’s sexuality can be about who they are attracted to romantically and sexually.
People attracted to people of different sex are called heterosexual while people who are attracted
to people of same sex are called homosexual. The term queer is a complicated term that has been
going through alteration in its meaning from past few years. However, queer can be defined as
people that rejects normative definitions of appropriate feminine and masculine. It is often a term
that is used to denote, within a particular community, sexual identity.
According to Sigmund Freud, “women oppose change, receive passively, and add
nothing of their own”. This specific perception was presented by Freud in his 1925 paper entitled
as “The Psychical Consequences of the Anatomic Distinction between the sexes”. Freud had his
own views on the psychological development of women which he finished by August 1925 and
showed it to Ferenczi (Awasthi, 2017). It was read by Anna Freud on is behalf at the Homburg

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International Psycho-Analytical Congress on September 3. Later in autumn the paper was
published in the Zeitschrift. Freud made complaints from the very early days of the obscurity that
evolves the sexual life of women. Therefore, during the beginning of his paper on Three essays
on the theory of sexuality, he wrote on men’s sexual life mentions while men’s sexual life is
accessible, women’s remain veiled. Also, while writing on his paper on children, he mentions
that there is much known about sexual lives of the boys than it is known about girls. Again, in
his pamphlet on lay analysis he mentions about knowing less about the sexual life of girls and
women than boys and he calls the sexual life of adult women “dark content” for psychology. The
“three Essays on the theory of sexuality” of Freud published in the year 1905 mentioning that
women are envious of male penis that is “anatomically superior” giving a hype to the phrase
“penis envy”. The penis envy is the female counterpart that belongs to Freud’s concept of
castration anxiety. According to his psychosexual development, during the Phallic stage, Freud
suggest young girls isolates themselves from their mother and get devoted towards their fathers
with affections. It is due to the realization that girls realize that she does not have penis. Girls
hold their mother accountable for not having penis and thus fail to forgive her for putting her at
the disadvantage (Freud, 2017).
Freud's “The Psychogenesis of a Case of Homosexuality in a Woman”: A Young Woman's
Homosexuality Reconsidered
The article “The Psychogenesis of a Case of Homosexuality in a Woman” is based on
Sigmund’s case of a young girl who was nineteen years old during that time. According to the
young girl, she was not ill and she had agreed to start an analysis of her biological father’s
insistence. The young girls’ father was concerned regarding her daughter’s homosexuality, very
specifically regarding her recent suicidal behavior and a suicide attempt. He had encountered her