Fragmented body
fragmented body (corps morcelÈ) The notion of the fragmented
body is one of the earliest original concepts to appear in Lacan's work, and is
closely linked to the concept of the MIRROR STAGE. In the mirror stage the infant
sees its reflection in the mirror as a whole/synthesis, and this perception
causes, by contrast, the perception of its own body (which lacks motor
coordination at this stage) as divided and fragmented. The anxiety provoked
by this feeling of fragmentation fuels the identification with the specular image
by which the ego is formed. However, the anticipation of a synthetic ego is
henceforth constantly threatened by the memory of this sense of fragmenta-
tion, which manifests itself in 'images of castration, emasculation, mutilation,
dismemberment, dislocation, evisceration, devouring, bursting open of the
body' which haunt the human imagination (E, l 1). These images typically
appear in the analysand's dreams and associations at a particular phase in the
treatment - namely, the moment when the analysand's aggressivity emerges in
the negative transference. This moment is an important early sign that the
treatment is progressing in the right direction, i.e. towards the disintegration of
the rigid unity of the ego (Lacan, 1951b: 13).
In a more general sense, the fragmented body refers not only to images of
the physical body but also to any sense of fragmentation and disunity: 'He [the
subject] is originally an inchoate collection of desires - there you have the true
sense of the expression fragmented body' (S3, 39). Any such sense of disunity
threatens the illusion of synthesis which constitutes the ego.
Lacan also uses the idea of the fragmented body to explain certain typical
symptoms of hysteria. When a hysterical paralysis affects a limb, it does not
respect the physiological structure of the nervous system, but instead reflects
the way the body is divided up by an 'imaginary anatomy'. In this way, the
fragmented body is 'revealed at the organic level, in the lines of fragilization
that define the anatomy of phantasy, as exhibited in the schizoid and spasmo-
dic symptoms of hysteria' (E, 5).
