Abstract

VILETE, Edna Pereira. The body and The devils of Loudun: according to Winnicott’s psychosomatic theory. Rev. bras. psicanál [online]. 2008, vol.42, n.1, pp.89-99. ISSN 0486-641X.

The author studies a character in Aldous Huxley’s Devils of Loudun, a semi-fictional essay. Huxley approaches the subject of the possession of nuns from the Loudun convent by the devils, and their exorcism, giving special emphasis to the exorcist priest Jean-Joseph Surin. Surin becomes ill, suffering psychosomatic ailments for twenty years. The author analyses these diseases in the light of Winnicott’s psychosomatic theory, applying mostly his ideas about the basis of the self in the body.

Keywords : Body; Self; Psyche-soma; Disintegration; Splitting; Integration.

        · abstract in Portuguese | Spanish     · text in Portuguese     · Portuguese ( pdf )