ABSTRACT
Psychotherapists learn to respond to the whole patient using the language of the body as well as the mind. As the antics of the Trickster demonstrate, perverse structures and strategies involve both body and mind. Sexual perversion in particular is the embodiment of psychic conflict. One obvious problem in establishing a body-mind or body-psyche model is that male and female systems must necessarily vary. Any network or system reflecting or integrating the system of the physical body must allow for differences in gender. The sexual organs of women are spread through the body, the whole female body is a sex organ, and therefore the whole body becomes the object of perversion. A perverse relationship, without sexual content can develop if the mother needs the child to satisfy her own narcissistic needs. If the mother has grown up in an atmosphere of abuse or neglect, her low self esteem may cause her to seek ‘mothering’ from her own child.
