Sophie de Mijolla-Mellor : the pygmalion fantasy

The aim of this article is to try to draw a connection between the relative banality of the control fantasy illustrated by the myth of Pygmalion and the madness of the pedophilic predator captivated by the minimal lines he sketches at the passage of certain pre-adolescent girls. He will give himself a right, sometimes unlimited, to this object who incarnates his fantasy ; but the girl he picks has no other reality for him beyond the appearance he gives to her. She becomes a living fetish that he will model as he wishes and whose principle function is to enable him to go on ignoring his hatred of women and his insurmountable rivalry with the mother who, unlike himself, can bring children into the world.
This text brings together several different perspectives : the aesthetic issue of the bond between creator and his work, the psycho-sociological and historical issue of the generational norm in the romantic relationship, and above all the psychopathological, ethical and legal issue of the pedophilic seducer.
Adolescence, 2008, T. 26, n°4, pp. 817-840.