“. . . To really have everything completely perfect”: On the psychodynamics of contemporary forms of body optimization.

Abstract

This article discusses practices of body optimization in the social context of a permanent struggle for the enhancement of performance and self-improvement that affects all areas of life. First, it considers social psychological, sociological and psychoanalytic approaches to this phenomenon before presenting and interpreting two female case studies from a research project. Pivotal in this regard is the question of how and in what way social needs and demands, on the one hand, can interact with individual biographical dispositions, on the other hand, to create specific forms of (body-related) optimization practices. Since forms of body optimization serve as a means of dealing with psychic problems and conflicts (which, to some extent, have analogous structures to eating disorders), questions concerning the shifts of normality and pathology arise.

Quantifying self-quantification: A statistical study on individual characteristics and motivations for digital self-tracking in young- and middle-aged adults in Germany

“…The research interest in these to a relevant part mood- and work-related disorders (precisely, depression, burnout syndrome) is in line with current psychosocial debates on the impact of late capitalism on the subject. Bulimia, however, appears to be correlated with environmental factors that idealize specific body images (Gerisch et al, 2018; Keel and Forney, 2013; King et al, 2020). To our knowledge, there is no existing statistical data that investigate any mental disorder as a trigger or enhancement for ST at all.…”

“Lots of People Pretend…” Shame Conflicts in an Age of Digital Self-presentation and Point-scoring

“…This new mode is the result of permanent competition and it continually demands ongoing, enhanced, and ultimately never-ending optimization efforts (King et al, 2019). In this context, optimization means an unremitting orientation to improvement, to pushing back frontiers and transcending boundaries, to the creation of relationships (with others and with oneself) within the logic of investment and anticipated returns, and to keeping our options open (in case returns might be higher elsewhere) (King et al, 2019a(King et al, , 2020). Yet no amount of effort is able to quell the fear of failure: "Because one can assert one's position only for the moment and only in relation to one's competitors, no one can simply rest on their achievements.…”