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An application of Freud's castration concept on the perception of physical handicap
Tatjana Sedlar
Full text (pdf) | Views: 10 | Written in Slovene. | Published: September 29, 2002
Abstract: To the prevailing paradigm of our understanding of a physical handicap new paradigms have been recently added, which, as well, rarely discuss the physical handicap sex specifically. The article deals with a relationship between physically handicapped women and their surroundings through psychoanalytical perspective with the main focus on one of the basic psychoanalytical concepts–castration complex. Due to the anatomical difference between female and male sexual organs and due to the sex related solution of castration complex, following types of view on a physically handicapped body are presented: a female view on her own handicapped body, a female view on a female handicapped body, a male view on a female handicapped body, and a view on a handicapped body as a sexual object. The conclusion of the author is that the conflict between the physically handicapped and their surrounding, because of castration complex and inability to eliminate a handicap, is eternal.
Keywords: physical handicap, castration complex, body image, psychoanalitic view