Anorexic Bodies - A Feminist and Sociological Perspective on Anorexia Nervosa

This book explores the ways in which anorexic women use their eating to control their bodies. It argues that the female body in modern Western culture is understood as open and accessible and female appetite as dangerous and voracious. Anorexia attempts to resist both these constructions in the creation of a closed, desireless body. Since anorexic women resist the power of collective ideologies their resistance cannot work - the closed body becomes its own prison.

List of contents

Introduction 1. The discovery of the concept 2. The enigma variations: psychiatric explanations of anorexia 3. Women's oppression: feminist explanations of anorexia 4. Anorexic meanings 5. The sociology of the body 6. The feminine body 7. The anorexic sympton 8. Conclusion: the anorexic body Bibliography

About the author

Morag MacSween

Summary

Explores the ways in which anorexic women use their eating to control their bodies. It argues that the female body in modern Western culture is understood as open and accessible and female appetite as dangerous.

Product details

• Authors: Morag Macsween
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 02.11.1995
• EAN: 9780415028479
• ISBN: 978-0-415-02847-9
• No. of pages: 280
• Weight: 385 g
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Medicine > General; Non-fiction book > Psychology, esoterics, spirituality, anthroposophy > Applied psychology; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / General, MEDICAL / Health Care Delivery, Psychotherapy, Eating disorders & therapy, Eating disorders and therapy