Psychic reality articulation in nonmainstream body modifications: A single‐case study

Abstract

AbstractNonmainstream body modifications appear as a social and psychological phenomenon that has been explored from many angles: as identity construction, self‐ownership vindication or masking of mental distress. The purpose of this research is to approach this issue, implicating psychic reality constitution and the peculiar way a subject performing these modifications links the three registers of reality according to Lacan: the Real, the Symbolic and the Imaginary. A qualitative research on a single case was carried out, based on in‐depth interviews. The participant has performed multiple extreme body modifications within a transformation project he calls: “alien cyborg”. They include, tattoos, mutilations, and suspensions, among others. The interviews delivered several themes related to the three main categories corresponding to the Lacanian registers. The themes reveal the way the subject lives the body's jouissances and how he deals with them standing on each register. The body project as nomination of an unrepresentable inconsistency of the body and pain control, “normalcy” and “perfectionism” as main signifiers sustaining the whole chain, and a reshaping of the body image that can be sustained by the Other's gaze. The project raises as a means of building a specific connection with reality and projecting his body in a space where there seems to be no limitations.