Anorexia and the Other

The purpose of this book is to analyse the particularities of the relationship that the subject establishes with the Other and with desire in anorexia. We have chosen to deal with anorexia exclusively in its occurrence in the hysterical structure, which implies for us a specific direction for the theme. The Other, as conceived by the anorexic, is a capricious, omnipotent Other, therefore, an Other that is not barred in its desire. This Other lacks nothing, and when asked for it at the level of demand, it can only respond with what it has, stuffing itself with a suffocating diet. It is an Other to which the anorexic is radically subject. That's why the anorexic makes every effort to establish a manoeuvre of separation, in which she tries to impute a lack to the Other through her eating nothing, so that the Other presents itself as desirous. Finally, she is authorised to also desire, because it is the position of desiring that is at stake in anorexia. A paradoxical position, of course, which we will try to highlight through the tragic heroes, Oedipus and Antigone.