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The body, as I have argued throughout this book, is the primary site for elaborating and representing a nascent sense of self and of the other. It is the site for carving out our individuality and for engaging with others. The body, both so idiosyncratic and ultimately the expression of our individuality, is also and always a social body. Through the use made of the body we can discern not only the literal enactment of our internal world but we can also gauge the emotional climate of a given sociocultural period, its malaise, if you like, and also its ethics. In my view, as analysts we should be concerned not only with the body in the consulting room but also beyond it because social processes can unhelpfully reinforce internal dynamics, providing socially sanctioned avenues for perverse solutions to psychic conflicts. In saying this I am arguing for a psychoanalysis that engages not only with other disciplines, which is implicit in how I have approached the subject matter of this book, but also one that is politically relevant and engaged – a position that was embodied with integrity by the late Hannah Segal.
In this final chapter I will therefore approach the body through the prism of the way it is represented and used (as in ‘manipulated’) in reality TV (RTV) makeover shows to go beyond the individual body and consider the social body from a psychoanalytic perspective. TV plays a role in organizing the construction of the social body through the regulation of symbolic manifestations of the individual body. My ideas are based on my experience of assessing participants for such shows, and on my personal reflections as a viewer – as one of many gazes looking at and projecting into the participants in these shows. This kind of programming – and specifically, in my view, the dubious notion of ‘democratization through access to the media’ that such shows promulgate – provides us with important information about our own historical and culturally bound moment, highlightin