Eating Disorders and Magical Control of the Body

by Mary Levens

People with eating disorders often make desparate attempts to exert magical control over their bodies in response to the threats they experienced in relationships. Mary Levens takes the reader into the realm of magical thinking and its effect on ideas about eating and the body through a sensitive exploration of the images patients create in art therapy, in which themes of cannibalism constantly recur. Drawing on anthropology, religion and literature as well as psychoanalysis, she discusses the significance of these images and their implications for treatment of patients with eating disorders.

150 pages, Paperback

First published September 28, 1995

Reviews

[Adri]

a lot more freudian than I was expecting, extremely interesting perspective on eating disorders

[vam pire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Horrifically psychoanalytical but otherwise compelling