Hypochondriacal anxiety and the eternal recurrence of the present: considerations about the film Synecdoche, New York

It’s the intention of this article, based on questions raised by the film Synecdoche, New York (2008), to discuss the articulation of hypochondriacal anxiety with temporality. It is noteworthy that the flashback feature is not used in the film; temporality, presented in light of the anxiety related to the hypochondriacal symptoms of the character, is fixed in an absolute present. Freud considered Hypochondria to be an actual neurosis and the anxiety articulated with it operates as an affective counterpart to the encounter with helplessness generated by the fragmentation of body image. We are, therefore, before the traumatic face of this affection that would once again be discussed, in the context of traumatic neurosis and through the concept of automatic anxiety, in 1926. Since then, the issue of the actuality of the symptoms, as indicated in the actual neurosis, gains a new meaning: it is a problem that could not be represented and therefore persists, establishing an eternal recurrence of the present.