Tout individu entretient une relation singulière à son domicile. Ce dernier, délimitant une frontière entre le dedans et le dehors, peut être compris comme extension des limites corporelles et des enveloppes psychiques du Moi. À l’appui d’œuvres artistiques et littéraires (Louise Bourgeois et Alice Anderson, Samuel Beckett, Marguerite Duras, Primo Levi et Georges Perec) et de trois vignettes cliniques de patients adultes dépressifs rencontrés en psychiatrie, nous avons mis en exergue la place du domicile, tant dans leur vie matérielle que dans leur réalité psychique, en termes de reflet de fragilités psychiques, comme conséquence de défaillance des enveloppes psychiques, ou encore comme soutien à la construction et au maintien identitaires. Après ces quelques illustrations, nous avons souligné l’importance, pour le clinicien, d’utiliser les éléments ayant trait au domicile du sujet dans la psychothérapie.

The residence could be defined as an interface between private and public space but also as a metaphor of the Ego, within the inside and the outside world. This article aimed at reporting analogies existing between the place of residence and the subjectivity. As the residence can be considered as an extension of the physical and psychic envelopes, the objective of this article was to demonstrate that the place of residence is a very important part of the material life as well as the psychic reality.

To explore the relationship between the subject and his home, we have proposed an analysis of literary and artistic works (Louise Bourgeois and Alice Anderson, Samuel Beckett, Marguerite Duras, Primo Levi and Georges Perec) from authors for whom home is inspirational. We propose also the study of three clinical cases of adult patients suffering from depressive disorders and hospitalized in psychiatry.

We were able to highlight three basic ideas concerning the place of residence: it can be considered as the reflection of psychic fragilities or as consequence of failure of the psychic envelopes or still as support for the construction and the holding of identity.

The conditions of living of patients we use to meet at psychiatric hospital (home medical care, social precarity, social phobias, etc.) associated to the importance of the relationship between house and interiority, demonstrate that it's very interesting, for us, to pay attention to the question of the place of residence. In support of these testimonies, we have highlighted the importance, for the clinician, to use elements concerning the place of residence in psychotherapy.