Abstract

CARDOSO, Marta Rezende  and  PARABONI, Patrícia. Dor física crônica: uma estratégia de sobrevivência psíquica?. Rev. Mal-Estar Subj. [online]. 2010, vol.10, n.4, pp.1203-1220. ISSN 1518-6148.

In this paper we aim at investigating the issue of physical pain from a psychoanalytic standpoint. The cases of chronic pain without any organic implication (in an etiological sense) require the analysis of its psychical foundations. Our attention addresses mainly the matter of the origin of such pain: is it psychogenetic? When it is intense and repetitive, characterizing a chronical pain phenomenon, the pain signals the lack of integration between bodily and psychical registers. This is a consequence of the disruption of the self's sense of continuity, caused by traumatic factors implying some fault in the protective shield system, among other features. In front of the breaking and entering into the ego, the body's borders are blotted out, enabling psyche regressively to appeal to the body - specifically to the bodily self - as a defense against physical pain. The drive energy is transferred to the bodily register as a last resource in order to contain the flooding of excitations in the psyche. The appeal to the body, however, works here as a kind of "prosthesis" that paradoxically assures psychical survival. We also aim at demonstrating how the complaint dimension is especially relevant in the cases of chronic physical pain. We see that when the subject complains he/she complains to someone. Exploring this feature that is so significant in the clinic of the chronic painful patient, we are driven to underscore the role of the relation self/other in this pathology.

Keywords : Pain; Trauma; Body; Complaint; Psychoanalysis.

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