Final answer:
Boys experience castration anxiety due to the B) fear of losing genital organs, which arises from the Oedipus complex during the phallic stage of Freud's psychosexual development theory.
Step-by-step explanation:
According to Sigmund Freud, boys experience castration anxiety due to the fear of losing genital organs. This occurs during the phallic stage of psychosexual development, which spans from approximately 3 to 6 years of age.
At this stage, boys may develop the Oedipus complex, which is characterized by a desire for the opposite-sex parent and a fear that the same-sex parent will punish them for these feelings.
Particularly, the castration anxiety stems from the boy's fear that his father will punish him for his feelings towards his mother, including the fear of literal or figurative castration as a form of punishment.
The resolution of the Oedipus complex involves the boy beginning to identify with his father, which helps alleviate the castration anxiety. If a boy fails to resolve this conflict, it may lead to fixations resulting in a personality that could be perceived as vain and overly ambitious.
Freud's psychosexual stages were influenced by the societal context of his time and have since been a subject of controversy and debate. Nonetheless, these ideas have significantly impacted the fields of psychology and psychoanalysis.