Clérambault: the feminine enjoyment

Abstract

This text is concerned based on the presentation of clinic cases in the Paris Infirmary for the Insane by the psychiatrist Gaëtan de Clérambault. The patients were detained by the police after they were caught shoplifting pieces of silk in department stores. During their clinic follow up, Clérambault noticed the existence of a sickly attraction of the patients towards cloths and a kleptomaniac compulsion to steal them. The systematic study of such cases led him to formulate the diagnostic hypothesis that the patients presented the clinical picture of a hysteric disease which prevailing symptom consisted of a fascinating passion for cloths and their subsequent use to attain sexual enjoyment. In an effort to systematize these clinical cases, the doctor wrote the book Erotic passion of women for cloth. Our paper presents reflections about the passion of women for cloth and the specific nature of their enjoyment supported by the text written by Clérambault and by the Lacan´s theory of feminility.