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This is a short posthumous manuscript of two pages dated May 14, 1922.
Freud comes to the same conclusion which Ferenczi published in 1923. The head of Medusa is to be interpreted as the female genitals, and the terror which it inspires is the castration terror of the boy who sees female genitals for the first time.
The phallic symbolism in Medusa's head is an attempt to deny the absence of a penis. The 'terrifying phallic mother', Freud states, is terrifying not because, but despite the fact that she is phallic. The attempt at denial has failed. The apotropaic power of Medusa's head is rooted in the hope that the