Special symbols in early female oedipal development: fantasies of folds and spaces, protuberances and concavities.

The authors present three examples, from the observation of pre-latency girls, of the use of anatomic regions for symbolic purposes. In the two cases, the first interdigital fold became the locus for castration anxiety; and in the other, the laryngeal prominence and jugular notch served as the focus for symbolic displacement of psychosexual concerns. The employment of these particular symbols, to the best of the authors' knowledge, has not been reported previously in the literature. The authors conclude by calling for further investigation into the relationship between the processes involved in such symbol-formation and those that occur in neurosogenesis.