Are scientific "facts" enough to define and assess a socially mediated conception of adequacy?
Experimental psychology formulates and resolves research questions about "body image" in terms of the pathology of particular women. What it does not focus on, however, are the discursive practices at work in its own assumptions. This can lead to the perpetuation rather than questioning of dominant narratives about women and the nature of body image dissatisfaction. With acute cross-disciplinary awareness, "Body Work" exposes the assumptions at work in the methods and status of experimental approaches. Penetrating beyond the usual dichotomy between experimental and popular psychology, this book illuminates some of the ways in which women's magazines have uncritically embraced experimental psychology's treatment of the issue. Drawing on her experience in clinical psychology, Sylvia Blood highlights the damaging effects of uncritically experimental views of body image. She goes on to elaborate not only an alternative model of discursive construction but also the implications of such a theory for clinical practice.

Sylvia Blood is a Clinical Psychologist who has been in private practice for over fifteen years. She has a particular interest in working with women who experience distress with their bodies and eating.

Introduction. Experimental Body Image Research. Critique of Body Image Research. Discursive Constitution of the Body. 'What Other Women Look Like Naked': Reading a Popular Women's Magazine Practices of Subjectification: 'Body Image' Discourse in Popular Women's Magazines. Body Image Talk - One Woman's Account of Her Experiences. Clinical Implications - from Theory to Clinical Practice.