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In this article the author calls attention to the coincidence of penis envy as a trait of personality and incestuous events during childhood. The penis envy is inferred by the author from somewhat inconclusive evidence, as for instance
the patient's masculine type of character, her scotimization of the vagina, etc. However, even if the account were classical, there would be nothing remarkable, nothing to lend credence to accepted theories of psychoanalysis, as the author seems to suppose. Since penis envy is based on unconscious fantasies of incest, he argues, it would be very nice to find a case where incest had actually occurred. On such a supposition one might seek for examples of actual castration to see if they would corroborate unconscious castration fear. An incestuous relation during almost the entire period of childhood—according to the patient, from two to thirteen—constitutes a constant environmental factor rather than a fixating traumatic event. To understand its consequence to the structure of the personality, it would be necessary to take into consideration the unconscious effect on the development of the personality rather than to state the existence of such a common trend as penis envy; and without psychoanalysis such an evaluation of the development of the personality would certainly be difficult.
As a matter of experience one seldom encounters an intact memory which reaches back without falsification to the age of two. Traumatic incidents occurring at this age are nearly invariably repressed. The recollection of the patient at this age, therefore, of placing her left foot on her father's penis, and herself lifting the cover to see what it had touched, is probably a screen memory. On the other events in the case, though interesting, there is not enough evidence to warrant speculation.