another corporation—which means he earn only some of money that will not cover the family needs, he decided to let his wife to work. To their daughter
Regan Liam’s sister “…they felt stuck with each other. Then they got stuck with us. They wasted their lives, both of them.” Peters 2004, 165.
Through the narration of his sister, Regan, Liam has had many occurrences during his stage of life that affect his personality development thus finally lead
Liam into identifying himself as a girl, not as a boy, as he should be. The next part of chapter will analyze the process of Liam’s sex-typing and the failure in his
identification.
C. The failure of the Oedipus complex
The second part of this chapter is about to discuss the process of the sex- typing and the identification as happens in Liam’s life. As been discussed in
chapter two the basic component of sex-typing is gained through the process of identification with the parent of the same sex. Nonetheless, this process of
identification happens in the psychosexual development stage. This theory leads the writer to analyze what was happening in Liam O’Neil’s psychosexual stage
that eventually leads him to misidentifying himself as he should be.
The most important stage in psychosexual development stage, concerning the identification process, happens in the phallic stage. It is when a child needs to
idolizes and love the mother as the first object of love and view the father as a rival, the so-called Oedipus complex stage
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. Each child must get through the phase to step to the next level of development. If any part of the process fails, the
child will be frustrated and the stage will not be finished, and so the child will stay in the stage stuck until he is able to resolve it.
The main character of the book, Liam O’Neil, was born as an ordinary boy. He leads his life like any other infant and gets through every stage of his
psychosexual development until he meets the phallic stage. Since the spotlight of the discussion is the phallic stage, the focus will be on this stage of Liam’s
development. According to William Gairdner 2007 “Young children need an uninterrupted, intimate, continuous connection with their mothers, especially in
the very early months and years.”
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What happens to Liam is the absence of the mother. In the chapter before the concept of the absent mother described as not
only about the physical absence but about emotional absence as well.
The evidence shows that the mother has already been absent even before Liam was six. This is happening at Liam’s phallic stage. The interruption of this
stage could have an effect on Liam’s later personality growth because this stage is where the Oedipus complex taking process and Freud himself state, “the Oedipus
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Freud suggests that the Oedipus complex process happens to boy, the process that applied to girl called Electra complex.
34
William Gairdner, The War Against the Family, Toronto Canada: BPS books , 2007, pp. 338- 339.
complex may justly be regarded as the nucleus of the neuroses.”
35
The first example of the mother’s absence is seen at a pool when Liam’s mother Mrs. O’Neil is having a conversation with her neighbor Mrs. Camacho.
Katie Mrs. Camacho’s daughter, was shouting to her mom “watch this, mommy…” she said, and jumped to the kiddie pool and makes a big
splash. “That’s nice, honey.” Mrs. Camacho replied.
Liam shouts to his mother too. “Mommy, watch me…” and then he jumped in pool and made a bigger
splash. Peters 2004, 225
The response to that action is Liam’s mother is ignoring him. Instead of giving attention to him, she says: “He could’ve at least taken the kids…” talking
to Mrs. Camacho about a man’s reckless behavior.
For a boy who is struggling with his oedipal battle, the attention from his mother is supremely important for him to get through the stage, in order that he
can continue to the next psychosexual level to grow into a normal person, except Liam, doesn’t receive any of his mother’s attention or caring. Instead, when Liam
needs attention, Mrs. O’Neil is disrespecting a man for his behavior. In her book “Catholic World” 1970, Margaret Mead stated: “…A small child also needs
someone who is intensely interested in him or her, who will spend endless hours, responding and initiating, repeating sounds, noting nuances of expression,
reinforcing new skills, bolstering self-confidence and a sense of self.” Liam is anxious about his mother not being interested in him. He, Liam, at
35
Sigmund Freud, Introductory Lectures On Psychoanalysis, New York: W.W Norton co. 1966, P. 419
this stage is needing his mother’s presence to fulfill his basic need. It also has been said that in the Oedipal phase the mother is the first love object; however
Liam could hardly find that love. The Oedipal phase is already arrested. And it means that Liam has lost his Oedipal battle. The infants first love for the mother
is directed toward material satisfaction. Stomach love, cupboard love, egoistic love; to be fed. Object love is still egoistic but directed toward nonmaterial
satisfactions, i.e. to receive love, affection, approval from the mother; to be loved.
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In short, from the excerpt the writer suggests that the reason for the failure of the oedipal battle is that Liam doesn’t meet his need to be loved.
As has been said, Liam is having the anxiety; Liam reacts to his mother’s action or in this case the ‘no-action’ as described in the narrative. Katie Mrs.
Camacho’s daughter and Regan his little sister, ask their mothers to have their swimsuit taken off because of their itchiness. The parent makes them undress.
Here, Liam is watching them naked.
“Liam pretends to tread water, but I know he’s really sitting on the bottom. He can’t swim yet. He looks at Katie, then me. I show Katie how to be
Salamander and we skittle around the pool. A movement makes me look up. Liam’s trunks are around his ankles and he’s kicking them off. For a
minute he just stands there in the water, looking at himself.” Peters, 2004: 26
Witnessing his playmates taking off their clothes gives an impulse to Liam to do the same thing. In this part, Liam is comparing his body to his friend and
sister that happen to be all female at that time. And he finds out that they have
36
Mary D. Salter Ainsworth, Object Relations, Dependency, And Attachment: A Theoretical Review Of The Infant-Mother Relationship, Johns Hopkins University.
differences. “He looks at Katie… and looking at himself” Peters, 2004: 26. In the 20
th
lectures “The Sexual Life of Human Beings”, Freud said that children do not relate to the distinction between the sexes, for the boys attribute the same male
genital to both sexes. And if afterward a boy discovers the vagina Liam seeing girls naked, it first comes to his mind to disavow the evidence of his senses, for
he cannot imagine a human creature like himself who is without a precious portion his penis.
Essentially, he sees that girls have vaginas and he has a penis. Liam is experiencing the difference of what he has and what he doesn’t. This difference
makes him frustrated. On one occasion, Liam had faced two different frustrations the ignorance from his mother and the new discovery of genitalia. The later
frustration should not be a big consideration, since it is normal and every boy is going through the phase. However, because Liam is in the Oedipus complex
phase, the fear of castration is an important part of the process. In this phase, a normal child should fall in love with the mother, but afraid of the power of the
father, Liam should be scared of the punishment of castration that will be done by his father if he loves his mother because he knows that the mother belongs to the
father.
Liam has already lost his oedipal battle since his mother is uncaring, unresponsive and less nurturing, which then leads to Liam’s first frustration. The
normal formula is that when Liam sees the vagina Liam has to be afraid that the father will cut off his penis and then his penis will become a vagina, based on the
theory that all humans have a penis, and the punishment is the castration as happened to the female. But we all can see that Liam’s Oedipal battle itself has
been start the cycle over modified. Instead of facing the fear of his powerful
father, he is facing the anxiety of how and why his mother is indifferent to him. The later frustration, the facing of the differences, is then becoming a major
problem and new anxiety. Liam is no longer afraid of punishment by his father, but is rewinding the process of the oedipal stage to its very first step: to get the
mother’s attention—love.
His early experience that Katie is getting attention from his mother, while Liam is not, brings Liam to the conclusion that the rule of attention and love from
the mother is the result of the difference of the genitals. At this point, Liam concludes that the reason why his mother does not care about him is because he
has a penis. And that Katie got attention as a result of her possession of
vaginawomb. This concept is then called womb envy.
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Again and again the writer suggesting the mother has a major impact on the child’s life because of the many experts and writers who state that the
presence of the mother during the early years is extremely important to their child’s optimal development. “By being the person who is continually there with
and for her child, by being the one to whom he turns for love, attention, guidance, assurance, and reassurance, the mother becomes the most important person in her
37
See chapter two for the discussion of womb envy.
child’s life...”
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The statement vividly supports the theory that the mother is the first most important object in child life, where her mistakes can be fatal. The
writer proposes that Liam’s Oedipus complex phase is modified.
Liam has to be in love with his mother; he has to seek a way to get his mother’s love back that eventually can lead her into the true object of love. In
short, how could a boy fall in love with a girl that is indifferent to him? Nevertheless, the boy has to find the way to make the girl be in love with the boy
himself. Since that the Oedipus complex is being modified—failed as it has to do, in Liam’s eyes, the father is no longer an enemy, and so he is not afraid of the
later castration punishment, therefore, the discussion of the father will be left until later.
The discovery of the new concept—which resulted from his later frustration—gives Liam a new theory about meeting his very first need; to be
loved by his mother. After knowing that the differences in the genitals are consequential in his mother’s love, attention is then given to the genital that he
possesses. He has to lose his penis to be treated like Katie. In other words, he has to be castrated.
Liam grabs his penis and starts to pull. “Take it off,” he says, almost in a whisper. He sloshes toward Katie and repeats, “take it off.”
“Take it off,” Liam says to his mother. “Take what off? Where are your trunks?”
“Mommy, take it off.” Liam pulls at himself again. “Stop that.” Mom slaps his hand away. “That’s nasty.” She retrieves his
swim trunks from the lawn and shakes them out. Liam backs away from
38
Arlene Rossen Cardozo, Sequencing, Brownstone Books: 1996. pp. 156-157.
her. “No.” he whines. “I want it off. Take it off, take it off, take it off.” He starts slapping at his penis and stamping his feet, throwing a fit. Peters
2004, 226
Liam’s mother is bewildered. She tells Mrs. Camacho that Liam is having testosterone transition. In her denial, Liam did not want his penis to be taken off,
but he was turning to be a boy—as Mr. ONeil called it, playing with his penis. Liam is then dragged to the house and left alone inside. Not long after that, the
phone was ringing and Liam’s mother went to pick it up. What she found was Liam bleeding to his feet.
“What have you done? Oh my god. Put that knife down.” She appears behind the screen, clutching Liam in her arms. “Connie, I need to run
Liam over to the emergency clinic. Mrs. Camacho rushes across the yard, “what happened?”
“He cut his… his leg. Will you watch Regan?” Peters 2004, 227 By pulling his own genital seems cannot fulfill the eagerness to be loved
by his mother. In a way or another he has to castrate himself. Soon after, he used the extreme way to do it, to cut his penis using a knife. Afterward in his
adolescent phase this extreme way that he has chosen will be replaced by the eagerness to perform transsexual surgery. This determination of taking the penis
can be seen as the tremendous desire to gain Mom’s attention. The writer concludes here, the action is the justification of the importance the mother.
In the chapter earlier than, has already mentioned that if a child failed in certain phase of psychosexual development, he eventually will not be able to
proceed to the next phase. Some of the libido will be fixed at that stage, and this could bring the neurosis afterward. Also it can say that a child will get older, but
the phase that he failed in will remain in his personality, unless he finds out the release of his anxiety. Liam, as the writer discussed, has failed in his oedipal battle
that happens in his phallic stage.
Concluding the part of the discussion, whether or not it is closely related the transgender issue with the matter of homosexuality, in his book The
Psychological Society, Martin Gross 1978 explain the failure of the Oedipus complex battle resulting the child to the homosexuality.
“… Freud and many of his modern successors saw homosexuality as the penalty for the boy child’s failure to win the Oedipal battle against a
seductive, overbearing, over-affectionate mother—the classic Mrs. Portnoy. Instead of finally identifying with the hated father at the
resolution of the Oedipal rivalry, the child identifies with the mother. Thereafter, the now homosexual male seeks other men as his love object . .
.. In the Freudian homosexual model, the penis-adoring child also shows disgust for the penisless woman. This is coupled with his castration fear at
the hands of an angry father-rival…”
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So to speak of the matter, this implementation of failure in oedipal battle therefore can also be applied to the concept of the failure of the oedipal battle that
eventually leads to transgender; which in this paper happens to Liam. The difference was located in the cause of the failure of the oedipal battle itself, where
the homosexual view the mother as seductive, overbearing and affectionate, Liam finds that his mother is indifferent, less caring and emotionally absent.
What Liam was yearning for is to complete the stage so he able to diminish his neurosis. Tragically, along his effort in getting his mother’s love—to
complete the stage—the mother keep on continuing her absence simultaneously
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Martin Gross, The Psychological Society New York: Random House, Inc. 1978, pp. 79-80.
with Liam’s growth.
D. Mother as the Power and the growth of the Womb Envy
