O sujeito sitiado e seu corpo refém : prejuízo representacional e seus desdobramentos via automutilação

Abstract

Current clinical practices constantly call for specific regards and problem-posing scenarios on psychopathological dynamics that defines a given time and evince unique mental organizations. Psychoanalysis cannot abstain from discussing this unique demand from contemporary clinical practice, which produces subjectivities imprisoned within themselves and often sees in the body the only escape for their intensities. The imprint of excess is present, either in terms of the inter-subjective field or in terms of the intrapsychic field. The main purpose of this thesis was to explore, in light of the loss of mental representation abilities, the narratives on suffering that invade bodies by means of self-harm, turning subjects into besieged entities when facing destructive intensities. Specific goals were to identify, taking the narratives of participants as the starting point, elements of their history related to physical suffering caused by self-harm that causes mental pain; explore the subjects’ understanding of their physical suffering through self-harm; reflect upon the subjectifying and de-subjectifying elements when listening to these subjects, who are experiencing physical suffering due to self-harm; identify elements related to experiences in the inter-subjective field that allow for an interpretation of mental dynamics that instigates several configurations of physical suffering through self-harm as well as a contribution to a metapsychological interpretation on pathologies involving the body, more specifically self-harm. Four studies were carried out: two theoretical studies and two empirical studies, which were designed in order to meet the purposes and goals established. For the empirical studies, we had three female participants, with ages ranging from 18 to 30 years old, who experience physical suffering manifested in the form of self-harm behaviors. The instruments used were a personal and social-demographic information form, as well as four interviews with open-end questions with each participant. The data collected was analyzed by using the psychoanalytical method, which is characterized as the one encompassing the specificities to be contemplated in this thesis. In this context, this Thesis, in alignment with psychoanalytical epistemology, places subjects at the very center of experiences, prioritizing listening to everything that transcends a medical-clinical diagnosis and physical prognoses, making room for subjectivity and unpredictability in every situation. By providing subjects a space where words can operate, liberating them from a place where they are at the mercy of unnamed intensities, one can understand the range of psychoanalytical studies. From this thesis, the concepts of besieged subject and hostage body were defined; these concepts make evident the mental fragility and the representational loss of these clinical expressions, which take the body as a hostage of intensities. From constructs such as this one, one may understand that psychoanalytical approaches on these kinds of suffering enable the appearance of problem-posing scenarios and the definition of effective interventions that expand our regards towards the tragedies of these lives at hand, which, due to such physical discharge, are subject to an entrapment that blocks the potentialities of life.