This episode discusses a contemporary use of the term castration, introduced by Freud. Cantin distinguishes between imaginary, symbolic, and real castration in relation to different moments of the human individual life and to the psychoanalytic cure, highlighting the relevance of castration as a work that liberates subjects from the cultural montage of sexuality that hijacks unconscious desire. The second half of the episode specifically explores the experiences and difficulties women face with regard to taking responsibility for their desire. Special thanks to Tracy McNulty for recording the translated interview with me, to Amelia Gayle for working on the translation from French to English, and Omar Brown, Luke Heister, and Abhipsa Chakraborty for their editorial work on this episode! Find Lucie Cantin’s work here: “The Drive, the Untreatable Quest of Desire” — differences “The Borderline, or the Impossibility of Producing a Negotiable Form in the Social Bond for the Return of the Censored” — Konturen  “Femininity: From passion to an ethics of the impossible” — Topoi  After Lacan: Clinical Practice and the Subject of the Unconscious — Willy Apollon, Danielle Bergeron, Lucie Cantin (SUNY Press 2002) References mentioned:  “The Mirror Stage” — Lacan “Psychoanalysis Terminable and Interminable” — Freud Gaga: Five Foot Two (2017) “The Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen” — Olympe de Gouges Here Women Don’t Dream — Rana Ahmad Follow the Center for Psychoanalysis and Culture on Facebook Read Penumbr(a), a new journal of psychoanalysis and modernity: https://www.penumbrajournal.org/