The crisis in masculinity: a Lacanian perspective on man as 'the weaker sex'

Our research aims to discuss the crisis of masculinity in the sense of showing the extreme, 'critical' fragility on which man is based: the possession of the penis, both in the years of his development and in his sexual life. So, we want to retrace Lacanian theory by revealing what seems to be everywhere in it and yet nowhere: the phallus. Although the phallus seems to progressively fade in Lacan's theory, we will oppose this dissolution and will take as a paradigm Freud’s (1909) case of ‘Little Hans’ discovery of his penis, the way Lacan explains it in Seminar IV. Then we will continue to carry Hans’ paradigm with in order to demonstrate how it can function as a lock-pick that can open some of Lacan's challenging points, not least, sexuation. Hence, another goal is to restore centrality to the phallus organ and try to re-trace step by step the entire path of the assumption of this organ by the male child, from erection to masturbation, up to the perversions and the exercise of his sexual functions. If the penis is what sends the male into crisis because he throws into crisis the relationship with the mother, then it is clear that a great criticality is potentially found in the relationship with the woman. For this reason, our research also gives space to the investigation of the woman and her relation with the ‘phallocentrism’ that we have addressed as paradigmatic. Essentially, through the phallus we tried to answer the question: how and to what extent does one become heterosexual? The backbone will be the Oedipus, divided three times as Lacan does in Seminar V. In giving concreteness to the penis, we also try to give concreteness to the figure of the father, hypothesizing a contribution that could go beyond the usual debate around him in terms of 'Name of the Father’. All in all, if the threat of castration is certainly not, as Lacan also says, that of someone coming to cut it off, then what is it? It is therefore said that it is not an actual 'threat' but rather an ‘anxiety’ of castration; so, what is it due to? When does it occur and can it somehow be overcome or, as Freud thought, not? We argue that the 'critical' aspects of man (i.e., in our dissertation, his taboos) cannot be investigated without trying to answer these questions. And that's what we did.