Eating Disorders and Magical Control of the Body : Treatment Through Art Therapy

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. Discusses body boundaries in patients w/eating disorders/ art & psychic cannibalism/the therapeutic relationship/etc. The book opens with an examination of the concept of magical thinking and its relationship to the wider concept of magic. This type of thinking is then linked to ideas about eating in a variety of settings and cultures and considered in terms of these patients' desperate attempts to be in ultimate, magical, control of their own bodies. Why this should be necessary, what fears they experience in relation to their own bodies and those of other people, is sensitively explored through case histories and illustrations. The last four chapters of the book explore ideas around art, psychic cannibalism and art therapy, and the different ways of approaching the difficulties inherent in working with patients with eating disorders Book Cover......Page 1 Title......Page 4 Contents......Page 5 Introduction......Page 8 Introduction to magic......Page 14 Magic and eating......Page 30 Magical control of the body......Page 38 Body boundaries in patients with eating disorders......Page 48 Eating and the body and eating the body......Page 62 Body boundaries with relation to art......Page 80 Art and psychic cannibalism......Page 92 The therapeutic relationship......Page 100 Why art?......Page 116 Conclusion......Page 130 References......Page 144 Index......Page 148 Eating Disorders and Magical Control of the Body has a predominantly psychoanalytic perspective, but also draws from areas of mythology, anthropology, religion and literature. It will be of interest to all those concerned with patients or clients who have troubled relationships, both with others and with their own bodies