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The production of meanings regarding body image

This article presents some ways to produce meanings regarding body image from a bibliographic review based on studies by authors in the fields of anthropology, sociology, philosophy, psychology and psychoanalysis. According to these authors, the body is constructed socially and is modeled through social conventions that reproduce the symbolic, cultural or political conflicts of each society. The body materializes the subject vs. society relationship, thereby reflecting the dialogue between biology and symbolism with regard to constructing subjectivity, because subjectivation processes are built in direct relationship with the body. From the authors cited in the text, we will see that sociology, psychology, psychoanalysis or anthropology, singly, do not enable understanding of and/or explanations for the complexity involved in producing meanings regarding the body.

Body; Subjectivity; Health; Production of meanings


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