- Title
- Discovering the root of obesity through the symbology of food: a historical and cultural exploration
- Creator
- Jacobs, Nadine
- Subject
- Obesity -- Psychological aspects
- Subject
- Obesity -- Research Behavior modification Psychophysiology
- Date Issued
- 2017
- Date
- 2017
- Type
- Thesis
- Type
- Masters
- Type
- MA
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10948/17569
- Identifier
- vital:28379
- Description
- Obesity is fast becoming a worldwide issue with detrimental health consequences. The increasing availability of effective nutritional strategies, physical exercise regimes and behaviour modification approaches to weight loss do not offer a satisfactory explanation as to why only two to five percent of people who have lost weight successfully manage to retain the weight loss over the long term. By referring to several concepts on how the symbols of food originate in the unconscious and end up becoming the unconscious impetus for conscious thought and dietary behaviours relating to food, the complexity of food pathologies, with specific reference to obesity is explored. The study presents a narrative review of the available literature on symbols in a variety of cultural-historical contexts through the theoretical lens of the psychoanalytic framework. The study contributed to the current treatment approaches to obesity, by highlighting how the unconscious content of the psyche serve to compromise conscious efforts to address the problem of obesity. Also, the need for further research into the development of a model that, by incorporating the psychoanalytic approach to obesity, will support the long-term success of weight loss intervention by addressing the underlying issues, is emphasised.
- Format
- ix, 243 leaves
- Format
- Publisher
- Nelson Mandela University
- Publisher
- Faculty of Health Sciences
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Nelson Mandela University
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