Eat to exist: trauma, orality and Self`s bondaries

Abstract

Our objetctive is to investigate forms of organization of the self derived from the experience of crossing traumatic situations. The starting point was the treatment of a young woman that, after having suffered cranioencephalic trauma, developed compulsion for eating sweets and talking. This can be a resource in face of traumatic experiences that break a protecting layer and, thus, the contours of the self. To reduce anguish derived from the sensation of a broken self, eating can be an attempt to exist, in other words, to construct boundaries capable of providing consistency to the self.