Citation

Boissière L, Chabert C. Psychiatr. Enfant. 2014; 57(1): 85-155.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Presses Universitaires de France)

DOI

10.3917/psye.571.0085

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Starting with a clinical and projective analysis of the reasoning of 9 suicidal subjects who have made multiple attempts on their lives, we study the dynamic and economic underpinnings of suicidal repetition at adolescence. Discussing the hypothesis of a failure in the fantasmatic elaboration of aggressive instinctual drive movements, in relation to the specific and persistant difficulties encountered in treating loss, we differentiate between processes of "reactional"and "compulsive"suicidal repetition. The "reactional"processes are part of the traumatic resonance of external losses after the fact, or in conjunction with pre-morbid internal reality. In this way, they determine these random repetitions. The " compulsive"processes stem from a depressive pain which cannot be elaborated and which fuels a continuous currant of destructive instinctual demands. The masochistic/melancholic reversal constitutes the main path of deviation. As a result, an autonomous cycle of suicidal repetition is established which is likely to increase in frequency as a function of an instinctive defusion and a correlative disobjectalisation.

Language: fr

Keywords

Suicide attempts; Loss; Repetition; Traumatism; «Compulsive» process; «Reactional»process; Fantasmatic elaboration