The witch as the anti-mother: A psychoanalytic interpretation of trial records

U tekstu se na osnovi zapisnika sa sudenja vjesticama u sjeverozapadnoj Hrvatskoj od kraja 17. pa do sredine 18. stoljeca ukazuje na njihovu zajednicku neuralgicnu tocku, a to je odnos prema tijelu i tjelesnosti. Analizom iskaza sa sudenja, kojima se pristupa kao osobnim narativima zena o njihovim zivotima, strahovima, projekcijama pa i fantazmama, moguce je iscitati da anksioznost povezana s manifestacijama tijela ima svoje izvoriste u psihickome strukturiranju subjektiviteta. Odredeni elementi vjesticjega imaginarija poput infanticida i antropofagije govore o strahu od majke koja subjektu prijeci ulazak u prostor simbolickog, odnosno ukazuju na svojevrsnu zaglavljenost u liminalnom podrucju izmedu imaginarnoga i simbolickoga. Majka kao subjektov Drugi koji mu jamci zivot i identitet premece se potkraj 17. stoljeca u monstruoznu vjesticu koja prijeti ponistavanjem cijele "zenske" domene - djece, doma, hrane, zivotinja, ali koja postaje i kolektivnim Drugim koji je posluzio za kanaliziranje sukoba, tjeskoba i nasilja u drustvu.//The article analyzes the records from witch trials which took place in Northwestern Croatia from the last 17th century until the mid-18th century, identifying their underlying thorny issue, i.e. the relationship towards the body and physicality. The analysis of trial statements, seen as women's personal narratives about their lives, fears, projections and phantasms, shows that the anxieties related to the manifestations of the body spring from the psychological structure of subjectivity. Certain elements of witch imagery, including infanticide and anthropophagy, indicate the existence of fear of the mother who prevents the subject from entering the space of the symbolic, thus leading to a sort of trappedness in a liminal area between the imaginary and the symbolic. At the end of the 17th century, the mother as the subject's Other that guarantees his/her life and identity, becomes a monstrous witch threatening to abolish the entire "female" domain - children, home, food, animals, at the same time becoming a collective Other that channels conflicts, anxieties and violence within society. [web URL: http://hrcak.srce.hr/index.php?show=clanak&id_clanak_ jezik=2 20073]