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The term '[[fragmented body]]' ([[French]]:''corps morcelé'') refers to a concept developed is introduced by [[Jacques Lacan]] in his discussion of the [[mirror stage]]. ==Critical Dictionary==In his early workpaper on the [[mirror stage]] (1949), [[Lacan]] refers to the [[imago]] of the [[fragmented body]], or [[image]]s of [[castration]] and evisceration, which express the [[subject]]'s feeling that the [[body]] [[lack]]s any substantial [[unity]]. The notion resultant [[anxiety]] stimulates the [[subject]]'s [[identification]] with the complete [[image]] in the [[mirror]], but the [[fragmented body]] always poses a [[threat]] to its [[unity]]. According to [[Lacan]], the [[imago]] of the '[[fragmented body]]' (reappears when the [[analysis]] touches upon or provokes the [[Frenchaggressivity]]:''corps morcelé'') is one of the earliest original [[:Category:Conceptsanalysand]], and its [[existence]] helps to explain [[hysteria|conceptshysterical]] [[symptom]]s such as [[paralysis]] of the limbs and the '[[phantom limb]]' [[syndrome]] to appear in which an amputee feels [[Lacanpain]]'s workin a limb that has been removed.
==Mirror Stage and Ego Formation==
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 [[lack]]s [[motor coordination]] at this [[stage]]) as [[division|divided]] and [[fragmentation|fragmented]].
==Fragmentation==
These [[image]]s typically appear in the [[analysand]]'s [[dream]]s 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]].<ref>Lacan, 1951b: 13</ref>
In a more general sense, the [[fragmented body]] refers not only to [[image]]s of the physical [[body]] but also to any sense of [[fragmentation]] and disunity:
==Hysteria==
[[Lacan]] also uses the idea of the term [[fragmented body]] to explain certain typical [[symptom]]s of [[hysteria]].
When a [[hysteria|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 spasmodic symptoms of hysteria."<ref>E, 5</ref>
==Surrealism==
The [[image]] of the [[fragmented body]] does not derive from [[Freud]].
[[Lacan]] himself compares it to the [[hallucination|hallucinatory]] [[image|imagery]] of Hieronymus Bosch; it has been suggested that Lacan's [[imago]] is influenced by Hans Bellmer's [[photograph|photographs]] of a dismembered and rearranged doll.<ref>Bowie, Malcolm. ''Lacan''. London: Fontana, 1991.</ref>
They are inspired by the artist's sexual obsession with a young girl and appeared in a surrealist journal to which Lacan contributed.
Bowie's suggestion is therefore highly plausible, and provides a reminder of Lacan's debt to [[surrealism]].
==See Also==
[[Category:Imaginary]]
[[Category:Ego]]
[[Category:Jacques Lacan]]
[[Category:Dictionary]]
