An analytic discourse about the I-body in four female addicts is presented, which makes it possible to demonstrate the centrality of the non-constituted filiation in those women. Through in-depth interviews, the weight of the real absence of the mother in female addiction is explored. The emptiness of the bond, which is stressed by indifference or hatred, prevents them from receiving a symbolic support in the intergenerational transmission to situate themselves in the filiation. The failed identity and the effective experience of being daughters generate difficulties to situate themselves as women and mothers. The addiction is an attempt to survive to those “shapeless” forms of suffering.
Female addiction; body; self-image; intergenerational transmission
