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DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE: FEARS OF CANNIBALISTIC ENGULFMENT IN BULIMIA
Author(s) -
Marsden Patricia
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
british journal of psychotherapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.442
H-Index - 17
eISSN - 1752-0118
pISSN - 0265-9883
DOI - 10.1111/j.1752-0118.1997.tb00318.x
Subject(s) - psychology , individuation , psychoanalysis , human sexuality , unconscious mind , mythology , developmental psychology , literature , gender studies , art , sociology
In this paper, the story of Demeter and Persephone is related to bulimia and the myth is regarded as presenting physical enactments of unconscious phantasies. These phantasies, which can oscillate in a terrifying way, are of cannibalistic engulfment and fusion and are seen to relate to an early failure in maternal containment and consequent difficulties in separation‐individuation. Anxieties over sexuality and more adult feminine identifications are seen as being overlaid on this unsafe ground.