The hypnotic power of imagos and anorexic mastery

The notion of imago, which is subject to contrasting definitions, calls for certain conceptual clarifications in order to establish its function at the heart of this psyche. This is true in particular when defining its relations with internal representations, as with identification or fantasy. As quintessential “psychic objects”, imagos have to acquire an apophatic character so that their archaic dimension can be modified, thereby allowing them to slip into the web of fantasy. A phenomenon of erasure or of auto-engulfment of the imago must therefore take place so that, where the imago once made the subject fear being devoured, annihilated and phagocyted, the advent of this process of negativizing the imago fosters its own auto-engulfment. If this “murder” is not successful, as can be observed in anorexia, the imagos will retain their hypnotic power, and this power is transposed defensively by the same subjects into a phenomenon of mastery over their own body.