Do dito obeso ao dizer em análise: percurso na escrita do sintoma

Abstract

Despite the extensive production on obesity in the medical field, little is questioned about its psychological causes and consequences, pointing to a denial of the unconscious, as advocated by the medical field, especially with the advancement of capitalism linked to science in the post-World War era. Thus, when patients arrive at the analyst's office, their discourse about obesity and the so-called obese body is strongly linked to medical concepts, and they often bring weight loss as a demand to the analyst. This leads to the question: is psychoanalytic clinical practice a viable treatment for these cases? Or, knowing that a demand for treatment constitutes the very framework of an analysis, is there something about obesity that can be written as a demand for analysis, as an analytical symptom? Based on this question, the overall objective of the research is to investigate whether something related to obesity can be written as an analytical symptom. For this purpose, we situate the socio-cultural context in which the issue of obesity is embedded, and then identify how Lacan's axiom "the unconscious is structured as a language" delimits a clinical approach that relies on the signifier and what it does not grasp. Consequently, we conclude that the so-called obese body is situated within a social context of infinite drives towards weight loss and the glorification of a slim body. This context is accompanied by countless offerings of highly caloric foods with high levels of fat and sugars, as well as slogans encouraging consumption or products that promise happiness. Additionally, in contemporary times, there is a significant influence of social media and technological advancements on individuals' relationship with their own image, leading to an incessant pursuit of the so-called perfect body. However, from a psychoanalytic perspective, we know that this does not occur in an identical manner for everyone, as the filter through which each person experiences the world is unique – what we call psychic reality. Therefore, the issue with body image is not a universal given among people labeled as obese, and it does not manifest identically for everyone. This is because psychoanalysis is continually renewed in each therapeutic framework, and if a subject is produced in the act of speaking in transference, we cannot work with universality in this field. Moreover, not only does the subject produce themselves in analysis, but the very symptom is also written in the context of transference. In conclusion, we aim to address these challenges present in psychoanalytic clinical practice with patients labeled as obese, to relate them to the conceptual field taken as a key reading: the writing of the analytical symptom.