You Are What You Eat: Cannibalism, Autophagy and the Case of Armin Meiwes
In: Territories of Evil
Author:
Roger Davis
Roger Davis
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This paper addresses the German cannibalism case of Armin Meiwes. After a brief summary of events, the essay examines the figure of the cannibal as outside institutionalized discourses and considers the self-cannibalism, or autophagy, of the cannibal’s victim, Bernd Brandes. Drawing upon psychoanalytic perversion and the configuration of the perverse couple, the essay argues that the self-destructive autophage could be a response to the appetites of the modern industrial world. The autophage reveals the cannibal to be a projection of Western appetite and correctly re-situates the appetite in the image of the Western subject consuming itself.