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In this article, two studies are summarized, that employ a previously developed experimentally validated measure of castration anxiety to test derivations from psychoanalytic theory. The first study compares homosexual males and normal males in a search for differences in castration anxiety. The second study makes the same comparison for normal men and women. S. Freud, in one of his earliest papers, suggests that castration anxiety, because of its role in the resolution of the Oedipus complex, is of crucial importance to subsequent object choice. Later papers repeat this statement without essential castration anxiety inhibits the boy's object choice and, if reinforced by organic factors, may result in exclusive homosexuality. The weight of psychoanalytic theory suggests castration anxiety is of differential importance in the personalities of normal men and women, Freud, speaking of castration anxiety in the female, states "She accepts castration as an established fact, an operation already performed. The castration dread thus being excluded in her case."

This paper presents the results of an experimental attempt to derive objective and reliable measures of castration anxiety and anxiety over loss of love. The study is part of a larger research intended to test certain psychoanalytic propositions. The concepts castration anxiety and anxiety over loss of love are of great importance in psychoanalytic theory. Castration anxiety is defined as "fear that something might happen to this sensitive and prized organ. Mabel Huschka found that some 40 per cent of a group of problem children had been dealt with destructively concerning masturbation. Physical threats occurred more frequently than any other type, and in over half of these cases the children were threatened with genital injury. Anxiety over loss of love is defined as "fear that external means of satisfaction might possibly fail to arrive." Its dearest symbolic referents are the fear of the loss of the mother's breast or the loss of the mother. It implies also fear of loss of help or protection. While awarded a role somewhat secondary to that of castration anxiety, it is none the less an important psychoanalytic concept.