La « maison » en psychanalyse. Cliniques du seuil

Abstract

IntroductionApprehending the issue of “the house” using a psychoanalytical approach opens the way to addressing such notions as “boundary” or “home”. How can the discovery of the unconscious help to revisit the preexisting categories of the familiar and the foreign? Does psychoanalysis accomodate “a home of one's own”? What would be the Freudian conception of the home? MethodThe notion of “the house” can be seen here in the light of the philosophy of Heidegger and Bachelard. Heidegger considers that “dwelling” is fundamental to the human condition: Man is, to begin with, a foreigner in this world, which he then must inhabit. For Bachelard, the house protects Man from the surrounding world, and underpins the imaginary and the dialectic contrasting self and other. Using a clinical vignette describing Ms. M. whose delirium constructed a “haunted house”, and drawing upon the work of the historian Stéphanie Sauget on the notion of the haunted house in the 19th century, we introduce the notion of the “uncanny” as the key to defining a clinical approach to home and dwelling. ResultsBy revisiting the notions of heimlich/unheimlich, Freud underlines their reversible nature. His reading of the uncanny introduces the possibility of a return and redefines familiarity in terms which never quite do away with the uncanny Psychoanalysis casts doubt on the very existence of an “at home”, seen as an interior that protects from any possible ordeal imposed by that which is strange or foreign. DiscussionThe Freudian conception of the home, where the Ego is not the reigning master, is one of a “haunted house”. The underlying notion of “dread” or “being haunted” is fundamentally linked to the uncanny, going against the idea of “home sweet home”, and it undermines the possibility of a state of inhabiting that is “one's own home” and provides comfort. ConclusionIn this setting, the challenges of “hospitality” show the ambivalence of the boundaries, placing us at a “threshold”, defining the position of the clinician, always operating in an “in-between”.