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Body Poly‐texts: Discourses of the Anorexic Body
Author(s) -
MALSON HELEN,
USSHER JANE M.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
journal of community and applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.042
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1099-1298
pISSN - 1052-9284
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1099-1298(199610)6:4<267::aid-casp378>3.0.co;2-s
Subject(s) - anorexia nervosa , context (archaeology) , psychology , idealization , dualism , discourse analysis , feminism , anorexia , gender studies , sociology , social psychology , psychotherapist , psychoanalysis , eating disorders , epistemology , clinical psychology , medicine , paleontology , philosophy , linguistics , physics , quantum mechanics , biology
It is now increasingly acknowledged that anorexia nervosa is a ‘culture‐bound syndrome’ which must be understood within the context of an increasing idealization of female thinness and a high prevalence of dieting and body dissatisfaction, particularly amongst women and girls. Whilst this socioculturally‐oriented perspective is important, it is also simplistic to conceptualize anorexia simply as a ‘slimmer's disease’. The ways in which contemporary Western culture is imbricated in anorexia are both complex and multiple. This paper uses a discourse‐analytic approach, informed by feminist Foucauldian theory, to examine some of the multiple and often conflicting meanings and discursive constructions of the (female) anorexic body. The paper is based on a series of interviews conducted with 23 women (21 diagnosed as anorexic and 2 self‐diagnosed). The analysis focuses on the explication of two discourses: a romantic discourse and a discourse of Cartesian dualism evidenced in the interviews. By contrasting the very different ways in which these two discourses constitute the anorexic body, this paper aims to provide thereby a socioculturally contextualized and gender‐oriented account of the multiple discursive constructions of ‘anorexia nervosa’ and ‘anorexic’ bodies. Implications for psychotherapeutic interventions are discussed.