Abstract

PAIM FILHO, Ignácio A.; FISCHER, Magali; VASCONCELLOS, Maria Cristina Garcia  and  KLARMANN, Regina Pereira. Freud and the castration complex: destruction drive and creation. Rev. bras. psicanál [online]. 2022, vol.56, n.1, pp.73-87.  Epub Aug 26, 2024. ISSN 0486-641X.  https://doi.org/10.5935/0486-641x.v56n1.05.

This paper focuses on the castration complex, a core element on the Oedipus complex resolution, background to anxieties which need to be worked through along the psychic development, and stimulus to repression. This complex is situated in the conflict between the desire and the restrictions to it, introducing the subject into the culture. We have questioned ourselves: How is this complexity inserted in the contemporary culture? The culture that, on different aspects, proposes an ideal that refuses the contact with the intrinsic limits to the existence and disregards the castration. The authors ground their discussion in Freudian theory, by considering the creative potential of the destruction drive when it is related to the castration. Provided that it is adequately used, the destruction drive can use its disruptive strength to break with the established and make feasible the conjunctive strength of Eros, settling a new organization, the Oedipal territory.

Keywords : castration; destruction drive; Oedipus; narcissism; culture.

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