Anorexia: a Failure in the Work of Melancholia

The self-reproach against their own bodies seen in patients with eating disorders has led us to posit the existence of failures in the work of melancholia. Defined by Freud in 1915, this process of melancholia is aimed at repairing a loss felt as unbearable by the ego and that triggers off a violent struggle with ambivalent feelings toward the lost object. The resulting hatred is aimed at the shadow of the object that falls on the ego. Especially in anorexia nervosa, there seems to be a regressive movement that goes beyond this.

Subjetividade construída: uma leitura sobre os trabalhos de Barbara Bloom

Esse artigo utiliza como referência a noção de “total design” desenvolvida por Hall Foster em 2002 e, através dela, busca se aproximar de dois trabalhos desenvolvidos pela artista Barbara Bloom (1951, Califórnia- EUA): The Reign of Narcissism (1989) e Mood Ring Home (2002). Consideramos o corpo de obras de Barbara Bloom como uma importante contribuição para o debate sobre papel que o design (em seu sentido ampliado) assume perante os mecanismos de produção e disseminação de formas culturais e de novas subjetividades no mundo contemporâneo.

Anorexia: a failure in the work of melancholia

The self-reproach against their own bodies seen in patients with eating disorders has led us to posit the existence of failures in the work of melancholia. Defined by Freud in 1915, this process of melancholia is aimed at repairing a loss felt as unbearable by the ego and that triggers off a violent struggle with ambivalent feelings toward the lost object. The resulting hatred is aimed at the shadow of the object that falls on the ego. Especially in anorexia nervosa, there seems to be a regressive movement that goes beyond this.