Meetings of the New York Psychoanalytic Society

DISCUSSION: Dr John McDevitt questioned the universality of an early genital phase. In his experience the age of sexual awareness and arousal seems to vary, but castration reactions usually occur later than eighteen to twenty-four months. He agreed that the factors leading to an early and intense castration reaction, and the reaction itself, tend to have an impact on the later phallic Oedipal phase and that such reactions are experienced as narcissistic injuries leading to a lower self-esteem and disturbance in body image and self-representation, especially in girls.

Dr. Edith Jacobson stated that while many observers confirm Dr. Roiphe's thesis that there is an early genital phase in normal children, she disagreed with him that this early phase has Oedipal resonance. She noted that the difference in the development of boys and girls needs more investigation. She regarded as significant the author's emphasis on the undermining of the body image and self-representations by too early and hence traumatic observation of the genital differences, which have an especially dangerous effect on women.