``Wetlands''

Abstract

More than 40 years ago Charles Bukowski described his experiences with coloscopy and the ensuing surgery on his hemorrhoids, both performed by a doctor pictured as sadistic. Bukowski not only depicts these procedures but also characterizes his compassionate inpatients as well as the nursing staff. In her bestseller published in 2008 Charlotte Roche's protagonist Helen needs surgical inpatient treatment because of hemorrhoidal bleeding. Her stay in the hospital, prolonged by a postoperative self-inflicted bleeding, provides the basis not only for strategies to bring her divorced parents together but also for thoughts on genitalia, manifold sexual practices, as well as on rules of hygiene. From a psychodynamic viewpoint the protagonists in both stories suffer from a depressive basic conflict, compensated in Bukowski's work by a dependent, self-destructive, philobatic form of coping and in Roche's alter ego Helen by an impulsive, sexualized behaviour.