““The first desire for each of us is the longing to be the phallus for the mother. Phallus here refers not to the literal penis but the object of the mother’s desire. The child wants to be everything for the mother; the child desires to fulfill, by himself the totality of the mother’s desire. What stands in the way of this fulfillment is the father. The father lays claim to the mother; the father has the phallus that is the object of the mother’s desire; the father lays down the Law that severs the union of child and mother and regulates their exchange. The child cannot be the mother’s phallus, and, therefore, he or she is castrated.””
