La suspension corporelle : une clinique de l’extrême

Abstract

ObjectivesThe purpose of this article is to analyse the mental functioning of subjects who have a marginal practice: body suspension. Body suspension is to hang the body from hooks pierced through the flesh. It's done by two or more persons usually clandestinely, or sometimes in “happenings”. This is a marginal practice in France, which can some ways be related to the sadomasochistic practices or “bondages”. This article presents the first results of a preliminary study concerning this issue. The aim is to investigate the psychic functioning of subjects practicing body suspension. The study started from these questions: Is the suspension necessarily associated to a particular type of psychological or psychopathological functioning? Or does it fit in heterogeneous psychic organisations? The authors try to give meaning to body suspension. Nowadays there is no publication known about this subject. Thus, this article treats an innovative and pioneering research field. MethodThe practice of the suspension is rare in France. Our sample includes three adults practicing body suspension met through social networks and specialized websites. A psychological evaluation was conducted with clinical interviews, the Rorschach test, and the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT). The qualitative analyses of each Rorschach and TAT protocol conducted according to the psychoanalytic method. ResultsThe research highlights the diversity of functions of the practice of body suspension. For the first subject, the pain of suspension seems to be a way to unify the body face a fragmentation anxiety and to attract the attention of a mother perceived as indifferent to his pain. For the second subject, body suspension seems is understood as a strategy to fight against depression and abandon, to act in order to avoid thoughts and to control feelings. For the third subject, the practice of body suspension may unconsciously satisfy his sadism and his need to control the other. It may also have a regulatory function, as “auto-soothing processes”. Our research shows the diversity of psychopathological organisations in subjects practicing it: psychotic structure, a borderline personality and a perverse operation functioning. ConclusionsStudying body suspension gives a new sense of body modifications and deep body injuries, by a psychopathological point of view. The physical pain associated to this practice would be a way to ensure a sense of continuity of existence, to restore the functions of a failed “Skin Ego” and a way to acquire, through the control of pain, an omnipotence trying to restore a vulnerable narcissism. The pain felt by the body suspension gives a feeling of self-ownership. Subjects who practice body suspension are looking for relief and welfare that we can link to the “auto-soothing processes”. Body suspension would finally be a way to struggle against depression and psychotic decompensation, in order to resolve painful psychological conflicts and to develop codified object relations.