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In this chapter I look at the representation of the masculine element in the psyche.
In their dictionary of psychoanalysis, Laplanche and Pontalis (1973) write that in contemporary psychoanalytic literature the word phallus tends to be used to describe the symbolic aspect, while penis denotes the male organ in its bodily reality. I will argue that phallus refers to one specific symbolic aspect only and that there are other symbolic aspects for which the word phallus is not appropriate. In particular, I want to make a distinction between the phallus on the one hand and the penis as representing the mental function of linking and structuring on the other. I will call the latter ‘penis-as-link’ in order to distinguish it both from the penis in its purely bodily reality and from the phallus. I suggest that it is theoretically and clinically important to make a distinction between phallus and penis-as-link.
After discussing the difference between phallus and penis-as-link I will go on to show how each belongs to a different psychic organisation and, with the help of clinical material, I will discuss the relationship of each one to mental space, which will be the main focus of this chapter.
My interest in this distinction started with thinking about women who adopt a phallic way of being. I noticed that while wanting to be, or to have, the phallus, these women concomitantly attacked the function of the penis as representing a link between the parents and that this led to a lack of internalisation of that function. I then found that this was true of some men too.
The word phallus in psychoanalysis derives from Freud's notion of phallic monism whereby only one sexual organ is known in
childhood. Freud himself used the word phallus only rarely but he did make extensive use of the adjective phallic as in ‘phallic stage’, ‘phallic monism’, ‘the phallic mother’ or ‘the phallic woman’. It is the individual's psychic position in relation to phallic monism which for Freud determine