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This paper explores the physical experience of alcoholism (a body under stress, forsaken, lifeless) seen as the consequence of an impossible relationship between dream and reality, between body image and the unconscious image of the body, and finally as the difficulty experienced by the alcoholic patient in embracing their own image as seen through the eyes of others. A clinical case demonstrates how the therapist’s special attention to the patient’s body can create a new connection between body and environment. The clinician as someone ensuring speech and language exchange must then take the place of the other, which may have a symbolic paternal function.