STAY HUNGRY, STAY FOOLISH: PER UNA STORIA NATURALE DELL’ANORESSIA

Abstract

Thanks to a broad historical-anthropological and clinical examination, the authors re-evaluate the role of hunger in the development of our species, and also in that of the individual. The alternation empty/full, internal/ external, the complex game that is established between need, object and desire, structures the childhood of the human cub. In the same way, the alternation between active and passive gaze inaugurates and accompanies the adolescent turbulence, often dictating the rhythms. The third stage of this speech, relating to the season of maturity, focuses on the (dangerous) intersection between food and air, between when we breathe and when we swallow. The lecture ends with the theme of fasting in old age, which engages the themes of depression, involution and detachment.