Lived Body and Fantasmatic Body : the Debate between Phenomenology and Psychoanalysis

Thamy Ayouch (1)

1 CRPMS (EA_3522) - Centre de Recherches Psychanalyse, Médecine et Société

Neither the lived body, taken up by Merleau-Ponty after Husserl, nor the libidinal body theorised by psychanalysts after Freud, can be reduced to the counted, measured, physical body, apprehended only from outside. Both phenomenology and psychoanalysis set forth the priority of a global subjective lived body, approached "from within". However, their perspectives seem to differ when it comes to the conception of the interiority of this lived body, which psychoanalysis deems as imaginary. This paper examines the similarities and discrepancies between the Merleau-Pontyan phenomenological body and the Freudian erogenous body. It attempts to show how the very categories of perception and imagination are reversed when moving from one discipline to the other. It concludes by proposing some lines along which the comparison could be prolonged.

Mots clés: Merleau-Ponty; Lived Body; Fantasmatic Body; Psychoanalysis

Domaines: Psychologie; Philosophie

Thamy Ayouch. Lived Body and Fantasmatic Body : the Debate between Phenomenology and Psychoanalysis. Journal of Theoritical and Philosophical Psychology, 2009, 28 (2), pp.336-355. ⟨halshs-00940733⟩