Obesidade e subjetividade na adolescência: o sujeito na balança

Abstract

This study approaches obesity during adolescence under the methodology of the study of cases. The scientific literature has been revealing an epidemic diffusion of obesity involving the world population. In Brazil, data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) in the year of 2006, highlights the growth of overweight population and obesity, particularly in adolescents. However, when it comes to the control of this pathology, the results are disappointing so far, leading to the necessity of new studies and new ways of carrying out the treatment. Assuming that obesity is a multifactorial disease, as it also includes issues related to subjectivity, the present case study was elaborated having as reference the psychoanalytic theory. The casuistic consists of three obese adolescents who looked for a health care service, seeking to lose weight. Along the procedure and from the listening of these patients, a psychoanalytic process was initiated, making it possible to build three clinic cases which are given in account for this study. The main goal was to investigate, from psychoanalytical constructions, the unconscious issues that interfere in the control of obesity. Furthermore, as adolescence is the moment when a person acquires a new corporal image, the relations between the transformations of puberty and obesity as a symptomatic response to the psychic work involved in adolescence, were developed in this study.