“Is this my body?” Dealing with the uncanny in adolescence

ABSTRACT

While we can all have uncanny experiences from time to time, there are some patients who live with a permanent sense of estrangement from themselves and the world that surrounds them. Uncanny experiences, in particular those involving the body, gain predominance in adolescence. In some adolescents their difficulty in recognizing their body as their own can become very pronounced after puberty when they are faced with the reworking of the Oedipal conflict and the potential overpowering effect of their drives. In these cases the uncanny experience of a ‘disquieting unfamiliarity’ can be felt either in relation to parts of their body or to their whole body leading to a feeling of being inhabited by the double. Through detailed clinical material from a disturbed adolescent, the author shows how the double is the product of a process of dissociation, which involves a previous process of projective identification connected to the wish to enter the mother’s body to either possess and/or control her, in particular her sexuality and procreativity.. As a consequence of this process, the individual can feel persecuted by the phantasy of an introjected object, which either now claims independence or threatens the subject with the possibility of taking over the whole of the body/ego and thus killing the host. The author proposes that the uncanny effect that accompanies the process of dissociation, and that is lived out through the phantasy of the double, is what paradoxically eases the ego’s anxiety of being taken over by the delusional aspects and the potential of a total psychotic breakdown.

Alors que nous pouvons tous avoir eu une expérience de l'inquiétante étrangeté de temps à autre, il existe des patients qui vivent avec un sentiment permanent d'éloignement d'eux-mêmes et du monde qui les entoure. L’expérience d'inquiétante étrangeté, impliquant en particulier le corps, prends précédence pendant l'adolescence. Chez certains adolescents, la difficulté à reconnaître leur corps comme étant le leur peut devenir très prononcée après la puberté lorsqu'ils sont confrontés à la reviviscence du conflit œdipien et au potentiel d’un écrasement pulsionnel. Dans ces cas, l'inquiétante étrangeté d'un ‘manque troublant de familiarité’ peut être ressentie soit par rapport à des parties de leur corps, soit à l'ensemble de leur corps, ce qui conduit au sentiment d'être habité par un double. À travers le matériel clinique détaillé d'un adolescent troublé, l'auteur montre comment le double est le produit d'un processus de dissociation, qui implique un processus antérieur d'identification projective connecté au désir de pénétrer dans le corps de la mère pour la posséder et/ou la contrôler, et en particulier sa sexualité et sa procréativité. Résultant de ce processus, l'individu peut se sentir persécuté par le fantasme d'un objet introjecté, qui maintenant soit revendique son indépendance, soit menace le sujet avec la possibilité de prendre en charge l'ensemble du corps/ego et d’ainsi tuer l'hôte. L'auteur propose que le résultat de cette inquiétante étrangeté qui accompagne le processus de dissociation, et qui est vécu à travers le fantasme du double, permet paradoxalement d’atténuer l'anxiété de l'ego de sa crainte d'être happé par les aspects délirants et du potentiel d'un effondrement psychotique total.

Wir alle erleben zwar hin und wieder etwas, das uns unheimlich erscheint, aber einige Patienten leben mit einem dauerhaften Gefühl der Entfremdung von sich selbst und ihrer Umwelt. Unheimliche Erlebnisse, insbesondere im Zusammenhang mit dem Körper, gewinnen in der Adoleszenz stärker die Oberhand. Bei einigen Jugendlichen kann deren Schwierigkeit, ihren Körper als zu ihnen gehörend zu erkennen, nach der Pubertät sehr ausgeprägt sein, wenn sie mit dem Durcharbeiten des ödipalen Konflikts und der potenziell überwältigenden Wirkung ihrer Triebe konfrontiert werden. In diesen Fällen kann das unheimliche Erleben einer ‚beunruhigenden Unvertrautheit’ entweder in Bezug auf Teile ihres Körpers oder auf ihren gesamten Körper empfunden werden, was in einem Gefühl mündet, dass sich der Doppelgänger bei ihnen eingenistet hat. Anhand detaillierter klinischer Materialien von einem gestörten Jugendlichen zeigt die Autorin den Doppelgänger als Produkt eines Prozesses der Dissoziation. Dem geht ein Prozess projektiver Identifikation voraus, der mit dem Wunsch verbunden ist, in den Körper der Mutter einzudringen, um sie entweder zu besitzen und/oder zu kontrollieren, und hier insbesondere ihre Sexualität und ihre Fähigkeit zur Fortpflanzung. Als eine Folge dieses Prozesses kann das Individuum eine Fantasie von einem verfolgenden introjizierten Objekts entwickeln, welches nun Unabhängigkeit verlangt oder das Subjekt mit der Möglichkeit bedroht, sich des gesamten Körpers/des Egos zu bemächtigen und so den Wirt zu töten. Die Autorin gibt zu verstehen, dass die unheimliche Wirkung, die den Prozess der Dissoziation begleitet und mit der Fantasie von einem Doppelgänger ausgelebt wird, das ist, was paradoxerweise die Angst des Egos verringert, von den wahnhaften Aspekten und dem Potenzial eines totalen psychotischen Zusammenbruchs überwältigt zu werden.

Anche se a tutti noi può capitare di tanto in tanto di avere delle esperienze perturbanti, ci sono pazienti che vivono sperimentando un costante senso di straniamento da se stessi e dal mondo che li circonda. Le esperienze perturbanti, e in particolar modo quelle che riguardano il corpo, diventano predominanti durante l’adolescenza. Per alcuni adolescenti, la difficoltà di riconoscere il corpo come proprio può farsi assai pronunciata dopo la pubertà, in una fase cioè in cui essi si trovano a rielaborare il conflitto edipico e l’effetto potenzialmente soverchiante delle proprie pulsioni. In casi come questi, l’esperienza perturbante di una ‘inquietante mancanza di familiarità’ può essere vissuta sia in relazione a specifiche parti del corpo sia rispetto all’intero corpo, fino a provocare nell’adolescente la sensazione di essere abitato da un doppio. Facendo riferimento al dettagliato caso clinico di un’adolescente disturbata, l’Autrice mostra come il doppio sia il prodotto di un processo di dissociazione preceduto da un’identificazione proiettiva legata al desiderio di entrare nel corpo della madre per possederla e/o controllarla, in particolare per possedere e/o controllare la sua sessualità e la sua capacità di procreare. Tra le conseguenze di questo tipo di processo psichico c’è il fatto che l’individuo può trovarsi a sentirsi perseguitato dalla fantasia inconscia di un oggetto introiettato che a questo punto o reclama l’indipendenza oppure minaccia il soggetto-ospite con l’eventualità di prendere possesso del suo intero Io/corpo e in tal modo distruggerlo. L’Autrice suggerisce che il senso di inquietudine che accompagna il processo di dissociazione - angoscia esperita nella forma della fantasia del doppio – è paradossalmente proprio ciò che riduce l’angoscia dell’Io di essere sopraffatto dagli aspetti deliranti e di trovarsi di fronte a un possibile crollo psicotico.

Si bien todos podemos tener experiencias ominosas de vez en cuando, hay algunos pacientes que viven con una sensación permanente de extrañeza consigo mismos y con el mundo que los rodea. En la adolescencia, las experiencias de extrañeza, en particular aquellas que involucran al cuerpo, ganan predominio. En algunos adolescentes, la dificultad de reconocer su cuerpo como propio puede volverse muy pronunciada después de la pubertad, cuando enfrentan la reelaboración del conflicto edípico y el efecto potencialmente abrumador de sus pulsiones. En estos casos, la extraña experiencia de una “inquietante no familiaridad” con partes de su cuerpo o su cuerpo entero los lleva a la sensación de ser habitados por un doble. La autora, a través de material clínico detallado de una adolescente perturbada, muestra cómo el doble es producto de un proceso de disociación, que involucra un proceso previo de identificación proyectiva conectado con el deseo de entrar al cuerpo materno, ya sea para poseer y/o controlar, en particular, su sexualidad y su capacidad procreadora. Como consecuencia de este proceso, la persona puede sentirse perseguida por la fantasía de un objeto introyectado, que ahora reclama independencia o amenaza al sujeto con la posibilidad de apropiarse de todo el cuerpo/yo y así matar al anfitrión. La autora propone que el efecto de extrañeza que acompaña el proceso de disociación, y que es vivido a través de la fantasía del doble, es lo que paradójicamente calma la ansiedad del yo de ser capturado por los aspectos delirantes y la posibilidad de una crisis psicótica total.

Notes

1 Following Janet, Breuer and Freud described dissociation as a pathological splitting of consciousness (Breuer and Freud 1893, 42).

2 The translation of the German word “unheimlich” as “uncanny” is not always helpful, as its meaning is broader than this. In most cases the French translation “inquietante etrangeté” (a disquieting sense of unfamiliarity) seems more appropriate, but I have used the word “uncanny” as it does convey a more disturbing and perhaps devilish quality—particularly related to the compulsion to repeat—which I think fits with my patient's experience.

3 The uncanny has attracted many contributions from psychoanalysis, philosophy, literature and art (see for example Botella and Botella 1995; Bronstein and Seulin 2019; Derrida 1980; Freud 1919; Foster 1993; Kohon 2016; Royle 2003; Todorov 1970, among many others).

4 Freud completed “The Uncanny” in May 1919, shortly after having drafted “Beyond the Pleasure Principle.”

5 In her description of Fritz, Klein writes: “Thus we found that his sense of orientation, which had formerly been strongly inhibited but now developed in a marked manner, was determined by the desire to penetrate the mother’s body and to investigate the uterus, with the passages leading in and out and the processes of impregnation and birth.” Klein continues to comment and agrees with Abraham's idea “that the interest in orientation in relation to the body of the mother is preceded at a very early stage by the interest in orientation in relation to the subject’s own body. This is certainly true, but this early orientation seems to share the fate of repression only when the interest in orientation in reference to the mother's body is repressed, of course because of the incestuous wishes bound up with that interest; for in the unconscious the longed-for return to the womb and exploration of it can only be by way of coitus” (Klein 1923, 1926, 54).

6 Infantile curiosity about the primal scene and the issues surrounding curiosity, omnipotence of thought, hatred and fear of retaliation by the Oedipal rival are well depicted in Freud's paper, “The Uncanny,” based on Hoffman's story Der Sandmann (The Sandman), 1816 [1984]. In Freud's words: “In the story of Nathaniel's childhood, the figures of his father and Coppelius represent the two opposites into which the father-imago is split by his ambivalence; whereas the one threatens to blind him—that is, to castrate him— the other, the ‘good’ father, intercedes for his sight. The part of the complex which is most strongly repressed, the death-wish against the ‘bad’ father, finds expression in the death of the ‘good’ father, and Coppelius is made answerable for it” (Freud 1919, 232). For the uncanny in connection to the primal scene, see also Perelberg (2020) and Sodre (2020).

7 Laufer links this mostly to the re-emergence in the adolescent girls of a repressed pre-Oedipal wish towards the mother (Laufer 1994).

8 The concept of dissociation was also studied in the US as part of a controversial condition called Dissociative Identity Disorders (DID) (linked to Multiple Personalities Disorders), seen in many cases as an attachment disturbance enhanced by intercurrent trauma (Brenner 2009). Dissociation is a frequently used term in psychoanalysis so it is impossible to do justice to the many authors who studied it. For Winnicott, dissociation can appear in natural forms and grow out of unintegration, though it can move to extremes in mental illness (Winnicott 1945). For Bion, while splitting would indicate a violent process intended to produce minute fragmentation, dissociation has “respect for natural lines of demarcation between whole objects and follow[s] those lines of demarcation to effect the separation; the patient who dissociates is capable of depression” (Bion 1958, 342).

9 In Hoffman's story, Nathaniel explains: “As my curiosity grew, so did my courage, and I would resolve to make the sandman's acquaintance by some means or other … At length, impelled by an irresistible urge, I decided to conceal myself within my father's room itself and there await the sandman” (Hoffman 1816 [1984], 88).