Clinique des sorties hors du corps : trauma, réflexivité et symbolisation

Abstract

AimClinic of exceptional or anomalous experiences offers the possibility to discover new “clinical objects” that question and extend our theoretical and clinical models. In this perspective, we propose to study in this work Out-of-Body Experiences (OBE) in order to understand their potential implications for our representation of the psyche and its functioning. MethodThe clinical material obtained comes from interviews with sixteen patients who describe their OBE. Explicitation techniques of mental functioning have been used to improve the phenomenological description of their experience. Interviews were also conducted in order to focus on the broader psychic reality of the subject. The aim was thus to better understand the inscription in the subjectivity of the OBE, both from the point of view of its context of emergence and its consequences afterwards. ResultsOBE usually occur near to sleep states or during traumatic events. The process leading to sensory integration seems then to be “disintegrated” in a specific phenomenology. It is possible to determine the main characteristics as well as the more general function of these experiences in the psychic economy of the subject. DiscussionThree main lines of thinking are developed in order to shed light on the subjective inscription of the experience. The first concerns the relationship between trauma, cleavage and Out-of-body Experience. These experiences then appear as a specific way to distance the subject from a traumatic event in order to protect the subjectivity. OBE also question the underlying “hallucinatory matrix” of psychic functioning, and, more generally, how the body “hosts” the psyche. Finally, the symbolisation processes associated with these experiences are studied from the point of view of its consequences afterwards. OBE is then understood as a form of self-representation, which figures the process of symbolization, by an original encounter with an externalized “double”. ConclusionOBE correspond to a specific phenomenology that can be linked to various mental functioning. Its position at the borders of subjectivity helps to understand the process of “incarnation”. When such an experience emerges in the clinical setting, from the clinician attitude and its ability to tolerate the peculiarities of this narrative, may arise symbolisation processes.