Citation

Haza M. Cliniques Mediterraneennes 2008; 77(1): 147-158.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008)

DOI

10.3917/cm.077.0147

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The difference between passage à l'acte and acting out hinges on one specific issue: unlike the passage à l'acte that defines impulsive acts in daily life, acting out fits in with a transferential relation. It is thus addressed, in particular to the therapist who receives it and can thus grasp it as a significant aspect for case follow-up. Working from a case study, we attempt to illustrate how a passage à l'acte can become an acting out. Flora is a young woman aged 23 hospitalised in the drug addiction ward we work in. Her life since about the age of about 14 is a sequence of truancy, wandering, anorexia, taking various drugs, suicide attempts and scarification. When hospitalised, Flora was prepared to accept and invest in a regular follow-up during which she had the opportunity to express her entire story. However, as she went through the process of revealing things both to us and to herself and the various elaborations she went through in between our meetings, Flora was again to resort to imposing flesh wounds on herself. Here, within the transferential relation, the scarifications were to be interpreted as being addressed to the clinician. From these marks, representations will be founded, discourses will emerge. © érès.

Language: fr

Keywords

Acting out; counter-transfer; Passage à l'acte; Scarzfications