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

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.
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.

Mary Levens is a psychodrama psychotherapist and art therapist at Atkinson Morley's Hospital, London.