Penis envy – An aspect of Sigmund FREUD’s developmental theory.
Freud believed that during development girls had to switch from
having the mother as the love object to having the father as the
love object: and also switch from the clitoris to the vagina as the
main genital zone. At about the age of four, Freud believed that
girls first discovered they lacked a penis. The girl will blame her
mother or the lack of a penis and the consequent hurt to her own
self-esteem. This causes the girl to give up clitoral sexuality,
and turn to the father as love object. This aspect of Freud’s
theory has received a great deal of criticism, particularly from
feminist psychoanalysts.
His notion was that the female psyche is hobbled by "penis envy",
which develops at an early age when little girls, playing their
little naked games with little boys, realize that little boys have
penises and little girls do not. Stunned by the realization that
men possess something of obviously great value (ahem!) that they
lack, women spend the rest of their lives trying to compensate for
this deficiency.
