Fantasmorphoses et machines à influencer dans l’univers de l’anorexie masculine

Objective

Although the amalgam of male anorexia and psychosis that has long dominated classical psychiatric literature needs to be put into perspective, the relations between male anorexia and “cold” psychosis, mono-symptomatic psychosis, or delusions of passivity nevertheless warrant further exploration in cases of patients who develop the most chronic symptoms.

Method

Rather surprising similarities and echoes will be shown through the cross-analysis of the fantasies of a patient suffering from restrictive mental anorexia since the age of twelve and the autobiographical and literary writings of Franz Kafka that attest to the presence of a unique imaginary world linked to particularly invasive preoccupations with food and eating.

Results

This comparative analytical study of fantasies and fantasmorphoses involved in the issues of anorexia and in Kafka's universe highlights the important role of what Tausk described as “influencing machines,” which originate in the projection of one's own body considered in its entirety as a genital organ. Paradoxically, these influencing machines, by acting primarily as inhibitors of the drives, will mainly contribute to a weakening of the subjects’ virility.

Discussion

To identify the reasons behind this rejection of the pubertary process and genitality, we must consider that there is a defect in the structuring of the Superego, associated with a failure of bisexualization in this same Superego. One of the clinical hypotheses offered is that this failure or dislocation of the agency of the Superego is responsible for the emergence of a megalomaniacal and asexual Ego ideal.

Conclusion

Whereas Kafka was able to draw creative and sublimatory resources from this imaginary world, the defensive modes elicited by anorexic patients who develop the most troubling symptoms will generally not be enough to completely conceal the de-realizing impact of fantasmorphoses or the uncanny feelings caused by the underlying presence of such “influencing machines.”