Bodies by Susie Orbach
Profile Books, £10.99
PRACTISING psychotherapist and psychoanalyst Susie Orbach thrives on people like me. People who want to change their body image in some way. Since she wrote her first book, the classic Fat is a Feminist Issue in 1978, which brought a new wave of thinking to our dysfunctional relationship with food – ie, eating for reasons other than hunger – she has rightly been deemed an authority on the subject. So much so that she was sought by Diana, Princess of Wales, for assistance with her own problems.
Orbach’s latest book, Bodies, focuses on the body as a whole and in examining a range of social, class, psychological, commercial and nutritional issues shows that the problems linked with the body have mushroomed. Writing with clarity in this 145-page book she assesses how the body has always been shaped by the specific cultural moment and the ways in which external factors influence it.
Using astonishing examples drawn from clients in her own practice, she provides fascinating insights into the pressures put upon us, arguing that “the body is both a statement and a site of empowerment” but that her wish is that we learn to “rethink the body in such a way that we can both take it for granted and enjoy it.”
Looking at the evidence, this seems unlikely. Her case studies, which include details of a man who opts to remove his healthy legs, may initially seem bizarre, but when chewed upon make sense. After all, globalization means that whether we are in the UK or Kenya we all seek “a fit body, a lithe body, a healthy body and a beautiful body [which has] become both the ambition and obligation of millions.”
She reveals: “In my practice, I have seen people with all kinds of difficulties: sexual problems, relationship problems, conflicts over parenting, work concerns, issues with identity, fear of intimacy, general insecurity and lack of confidence. Almost without exception, how individuals think and feel about their bodies has come to play an ever larger part in their notion of what is right or wrong.”
This, of course, stems from consumerism. Plastic surgery, for instance, is on the rise and “people will soon ask why you haven’t remodeled your body, as though it were a shameful old kitchen.” She draws other examples such as tattooing, inserting gold teeth, covering heads and practising circumcision on males and females to show how bodies also denote one as belonging to a specific group.
In Bodies, Susie Orbach provides much food – healthy, of course – for thought.
Sharon Garfinkel
