ABSTRACT
This chapter explains a dynamic namely the dread of the maternal body and its relevance in understanding necrophilic fantasies. Unlike Klein who stresses the envy provoked by the maternal body and its prized possessions, it draws on Kristeva's evocative depiction of the dread of the maternal body, specifying how it can be experienced as 'horrific'. Necrophilia is a perversion that is quite remote from the daily practice of analysts. Only those working in forensic settings typically encounter it. The chapter illustrates how the 'corpse' or corpse look-alike functions at several levels: it is a safe object that will not engulf the self, it is a non-retaliatory container into which the self can evacuate the sense of fragmentation and/or deadness and it is a non-seeing body/object that cannot humiliate. It focuses in particular on the latter because it proved to be an important dimension in work with patients whose psychic pain is in the body.
