Precarity, hybridity and vacillating identity: The work of Michel de M'Uzan and Jenny Saville on being human in a body

Abstract

The following study juxtaposes psychoanalytical theories of Michel de M'Uzan with paintings by the artist Jenny Saville. Their respective ideas are mutually reinforcing: Saville's works can be read as a visual representation of some of M'Uzan's concepts, specifically permanent disquiet, the spectrum of identity, and depersonalization. Both psychoanalyst and artist share a fascination with the human body and the hybridity of the human condition, eschewing binary distinctions between the self and other. Saville is interested in bodies that radiate a state of “in‐betweeness”; M'Uzan finds psychic health in the ability to embrace the uncertainty that lies at the interface between ego and nonego. Both explore the possibilities of transformation within the multiple realities of our lives, and for both this is a quest for an inner truth about being human in a body.