The body in hypochondria: a Lacanian perspective

Bulut B. P., Bozo Ö.

PSYCHOANALYTIC PSYCHOTHERAPY, vol.39, no.1, pp.63-74, 2025 (ESCI) identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Review
  • Volume: 39 Issue: 1
  • Publication Date: 2025
  • Doi Number: 10.1080/02668734.2024.2440857
  • Journal Name: PSYCHOANALYTIC PSYCHOTHERAPY
  • Journal Indexes: Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, CINAHL, Educational research abstracts (ERA), Psycinfo, Social services abstracts
  • Page Numbers: pp.63-74
  • Keywords: anxiety, body, Freud, Hypochondria, Lacan
  • Middle East Technical University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

'Body' has an essential role in understanding hypochondria in the psychoanalytic approach. As in Freud's point of view, Lacan argued that the subject's relation to his/her body is not a pre-given; in the beginning, there is no psychic representation of the body. The medical approach evaluates the symptomatic body as the biological body; nevertheless, it is the body incorporating the language order. Hence, hypochondriac symptoms in a neurotic individual are not based on the biology itself but his/her own 'understanding' of the biological anatomy. In this essay, it is posited that there is a dialectic relationship between mind and body by describing Lacan's ideas on the body in hypochondria, a condition currently referred to as health anxiety. Lacan's perspective on the body enables us to rethink hypochondria more dynamically and interactively by moving beyond binary oppositions.