Case Studies on Ordinary Psychosis and the Body

Abstract

In this chapter I examine the role of body disturbances in psychosis by drawing on vignettes derived from Lacanian clinicians. The cases highlight key features of body phenomena pertinent to the field of ordinary psychosis. I first discuss the different status of symptoms in neurosis and psychosis, and highlight how the construction of stabilising symptoms in the treatment of psychosis is a central feature of Lacanian psychoanalysis. I then turn to the schizophrenia/paranoia distinction and contend that body symptoms, while not exclusive to schizophrenia, are especially pertinent to the schizophrenia spectrum of psychosis. Moreover, I claim that the inability of the schizophrenic to form a stabilising delusion entails that other forms of symptomatisation, such as imaginary identifications and body symptoms, provide an important locus for stabilisation. Next, I introduce several key ideas in the field of ordinary psychosis concerning the onset of psychosis, triggering events and body symptoms that contrast with elements of Lacan’s classical theory of psychosis. From here, I examine six case vignettes focusing on the onset of psychosis, triggering events and body symptoms. I claim that inconsistency and ambiguity is evident in how different theorists discuss the onset, triggering and body symptoms in psychosis. Consequently, these cases raise a series of unresolved issues regarding the mechanisms involved in the onset of psychosis and subsequent triggering events, and in how certain body phenomena appear to perform a stabilising function in psychosis.