Monisme primaire ou primat de l’autre. Considérations théoriques et implications cliniques à l’adolescence à partir d’un cas d’anorexie mentale

Objective

In this article, we will look at the object in psychoanalysis, and more specifically the object of excitation, as a drive coordinate between original monism and the primacy of the other. We will question the function of the object in the relationship to excitation, particularly in adolescence.

Methodology

To illustrate our remarks, we will use the weekly psychotherapy of an adolescent girl presenting an anorexia nervosa syndrome.

Results

The treatment also brought up to date the link to the drive object by accentuating a relationship to excitation locked in the pubertal process. Instead of emancipation, it would seem to be a form of reactionary over-investment of the biological body in its very constraints, in order to counterbalance them: it would be a question of drying up the drive body, by systematically going against the needs of the biological body, whatever the cost. The question of the object is thus very much embroiled in this biphasic sexuality in its adolescent version, but also in the negotiation of arousal under the primacy of the other, which is particularly precocious.

Discussion

If adolescence is not “a period of reliving this separation-individuation”, then how can we think about the instinctual impact on the negotiation of the bond with the other of an effective separation, whether total or partial? The question of the object caught in the net of libidinal subversion and its pitfalls would then open up avenues of release in therapy directly linked to the modalities of satisfaction in the transference.

Conclusion

The purpose of this article is not to make a generic decision in favor of one theoretical/clinical model that would supersede others in all circumstances, but our clinical practice clearly invites us to subscribe to the contributions of Laplanche, and also of Dejours, for whom the involvement of the body is at the forefront of libidinal subversion and its designs.