Body memory and hypochondria: an ever present archaic experience?

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyze the uniqueness of the dimension of memory in hypochondria. Its characteristic body distress is one of the most archaic modes of death experience, projecting itself into the concrete and into the immediate of the body. In hypochondria, the persecutory character that affects the subject’s body implies an “updating” in the sense of a devilish return of the same, a primary traumatic experience. The imminent danger of death, presented by the serious illness these subjects are convinced to have been affected by, expresses the continuing perception they have of body states. This comes from how long the time made present, an archaic time, stayed in the psychic life, closer to the level of perception. Thus, the ego updates its most basic and primordial mode of existing, paradoxically protecting itself from the effects of trauma.