The Castration Complex and The Wolf Man

 

Although Freud's case study of the "Wolf Man" is loaded with several different theories and concepts, I chose to focus on the ideas he presented in terms of masculinity/femininity in relation to the castration complex. He refers to the "sexual organization" of the patient in terms of his identity (and desires) after unconsciously accessing his memory of witnessing his father and mother having sex (415). The Wolf Man further processes this act by focusing on the genital organization of his parents, particularly in regards to the masculine and feminine roles they are playing in the incident. In a traditionally gendered understanding of these terms (especially within the context of Freud's use of them), the idea of masculinity is represented by the "active" participant, while femininity aligns itself with the "passive".

Therefore, what the young Wolf Man was witnessing in his state of infantile neurosis was the beginning of a fear of castration and the loss of the penis caused by the father. While he did not necessarily separate the idea that his mother was not actually castrated, his witnessing of the event secured this fear of femininity (and becoming feminine).

The potential loss of his masculinity (and being penetrated by his father) was later transferred into several of his dreams. One of the Wolf Man’s most powerful fantasies included a scene where several wolves attempt to mount the tailless and “castrated” wolf, which is standing in as his mother. His anxiety over his identity with the castrated wolf stems from both a fear of his father and desire to receive sexual satisfaction from him, and this identification with castration, passivity, and femininity creates a complicated dream sequence. Freud states that his “last sexual aim, the passive attitude towards his father, succumbed to repression, and fear of his father appeared in the shape of the wolf phobia” (415). This was groundbreaking for Freud in terms of realizing the power and connection the dream world and its creative influence could have on the conscious psyche.