The Female Body and Plastic Surgery

A Modern Hysteria
By Cristina Lindenmeyer
English

While in Freud’s time the body of the hysteric, with its spectacular crises, was the means to access the problematic of the fates of sexuality in relation to the social organization of the time, what, nowadays, do hysterics convert in their bodies?Based on a psychoanalytical practice with women who have turned to plastic surgery, the author asks herself the following questions: in what way do these experiences of the transformation of the body pose us questions through psychoanalysis? What fantasies lead these women to take such steps? The author upholds the idea that turning to plastic surgery that “fills” or “enhances” is a new hysterical modality of fending off castration anxiety. In this respect, these women turn to plastic surgery in deference to the social system.

Keywords

  • the female body
  • plastic surgery
  • hysteria
  • female sexuality
  • the fetishized body
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