symbolic castration

is my becoming caught in the symbolic order. It is not the opposite of power. In fact it is synonymous with power. It is that which confers power on me.

This is what the infamous 'symbolic castration' means: the castration which occurs by the very fact of me being caught in the symbolic order, assuming a symbolic mask or title. Castration is the gap between what I immediately am and the symbolic title which confers on me a certain status and authority. In this precise sense, far from being the opposite of power, it is synonymous with power... it is that which confers power on me. (Zizek 'how to read lacan' : 29)

is the gap between my direct psychological identity (the fluid idea of self) and my public symbolic identity (my title).

This gap between my direct psychological identity and my symbolic identity (the symbolic mask or title I wear, defining what I am for and in the big Other) is what Lacan (for complex reasons that we can here ignore) calls 'symbolic castration,' with the phallus as its signifier. (Zizek 'how to read lacan' : 29)

is the price paid for the exercise of power.

symbolic castration is the price paid for the exercise of power.

symbolic castration, n.Definitions

symbolic castration