What Do Women Want? Gawain and Freud

Abstract

There is something particularly chilling about decapitation, something that provokes a deep sense of revulsion. It’s the reason beheading has been an extremely effective method of execution from Madame Guillotine to the grainy videos posted on the Internet by terrorist organizations. This spine-tingling act is at its core a symbolic castration and many men have survived its lesser cousin: circumcision.