Abject Relations: Everyday Worlds of Anorexia (Studies in Medical Anthropology)

About this book

Abject Relations presents an alternative approach to anorexia long considered the epitome of a Western obsession with individualism beauty self-control and autonomy. Through detailed ethnographic investigations Megan Warin looks at the heart of what it means to live with anorexia on a daily basis. Participants describe difficulties with social relatedness not being at home in their body and feeling disgusting and worthless. For them anorexia becomes a seductive and empowering practice that cleanses bodies of shame and guilt becomes a friend and support and allows them to forge new social relations. Unraveling anorexias complex relationships and contradictions Warin provides a new theoretical perspective rooted in a socio-cultural context of bodies and gender. Abject Relations departs from conventional psychotherapy approaches and offers a different "logic " one that involves the shifting forces of power disgust and desire and provides new ways of thinking that may have implications for future treatment regimes.