Bodies

In this short book, renowned psychologist Susie Orbach discusses how our bodies have become a commodity, something to be altered by surgery, weight loss, make up, etc. Social media has reinforced ideas of the perfect body, and anyone who doesn’t have one (i.e., most of us) is made to feel that it is our fault and that we need to change it to be accepted. Our body is no longer somewhere to live from, but a commodity to prove our worth in the world. In Scandinavia, women who think they are too tall are having their femur broken and reset to make them shorter; in China, people who think they are too short can have a metal rod inserted to make them taller; women are having plastic surgery to shrink their waist and enlarge their breasts, show more while men are having surgery to increase the length and girth of their penis. Something has gone very askew in the way we view our own bodies.

Orbach also examines extreme cases such as Andrew, a physically healthy man who felt that he could only be happy if he had his legs amputated, and she looks at the psychology behind such stories.

It’s a short book at 145 pages and is something of an introduction to the ideas contained within, rather than a full scale investigation, but it makes for fascinating reading, talking about how the dieting industry is based on failure and plays on people’s insecurities. This is a book to make you think, it’s a book to make you angry, and it’s a book that everyone should read. Fascinating and highly recommended. show less

Every 'body' ought to read this book. Frightening exposure of consumer culture taking over the comfort we all feel in our bodies. It's like how torturers take over control of a victim's body! Author reinforces that bodies are for living our lives in. However, all over the world, people are transforming, perfecting, doing-over, vomiting, cutting out so as to fit into the ideal Wester image. Beauty is missing; humans are being tricked into homogenizing their physicality. The feeling of being discontent is a manufactured discontent so that we all go to gyms, buy into weight loss schemes, feel bad about ourselves and keep the weight loss, cosmetic surgery, cosmetic industries afloat. And there's more....about body transference in show more psychoanalysis, loss, the future, parenting. show less

This was very good. I'm a mailman with two eyes for detail, so looking at the neverending stream of photoshopped Lifestyle and Fitness magazines keeps me considering parts of this book.

This series is great so far. I rec both this & the Kostenbaum.

Glad I read this book, and will go back to it again. I can do no better than quote from WIlliam Leith's review in the Guardian - "Reading this book made me think: our system makes us want things until we're so damaged that we can't go on, and it's showing on our skinny, obese, scarred, tattooed, pierced and hated bodies. And now it looks like the system is breaking down. Which might be good news for bodies."

Seit Jahrzehnten zeigt Susie Orbach in Ihren Büchern auf, wie unser Selbstwertgefühl durch unseren Körper geprägt und häufig destabilisiert wird. Einen entscheidenden Anteil hat daran die Schönheits-, Pharma-, und Diätindustrie, deren Gewinn in dem Maß wächst, in dem wir unseren Körper als "nicht richtig" wahrnehmen. Der Körperfetischismus, der schnell zum Körperhass werden kann, ist längst kein Problem der Frauen mehr, Bulimie oder Anorexie sind immer weiter verbreitete Phänomene bei Männern und Kindern. Und wenn sich - um nur ein Beispiel zu nennen - 50% der koreanischen Frauen ihre Augenlieder so operieren, dass sie "westlich" aussehen, dann ist der Körperhass der industrialisierten Welt ein heimlicher Exportschlager show more in Zeiten der Globalisierung. show less