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Freud's view of feminine development has caused much turbulence in the human sciences in general and in feminist theory in particular. The appeal of Lacanian theory for feminists, which lies in its having pulled Freud's ideas away from biological determinism, has even further obscured the insights of the inventor of psychoanalysis. It is generally assumed that Lacan has moved beyond Freud, especially where the question of sexual difference and its relation to the symbolic order are concerned. However, such a “move” has only displaced the patriarchal bias that has been attributed to psychoanalysis. Today it is only when turned against itself that Lacan's reading of Freud serves a function in feminist theory. His concept of symbolic castration is now considered to be the ultimate form of alienation for women, since it condemns them to accept the law of sexual difference and its demeaning social consequences. Hence, in the feminist critical appropriation of Lacan's ideas, Freud incarnates an evil that Lacan has somewhat deceptively perpetuated.
In reaction to this view, I would argue that a reading of the feminine oedipal complex—a reading in which Freud interprets Lacan rather than the reverse—may reveal that feminine castration, far from submitting women to the demands of phallocracy, is on the contrary the condition of its subversion. I must add, however, that this somewhat unusual argument came to me not through my readings of Freud or Lacan, but through my encounter with Shakespeare's character Desdemona. Othello's beloved wife appears to me to be a prime example of a woman who died for having succeeded where Freud suspected she couldn't and where Lacan never really bothered to go and look.
Before we examine Desdemona's psychic success in detail, let's briefly summarize Freud's and Lacan's respective views on the fate of women's oedipal complex. According to Freud, boys and girls relate differently to the oedipal situation; while the prohibition of incest literally