Anorexic space

This paper considers the female anorexic's use of space by reviewing her sp atial practice as demonstrated in her clinical presentation upon starting t herapy. Two categories of concept about space underpin the paper: the notio n that space is produced as conceived in a Marxist perspective by Lefebvre, and psychoanalytic concepts of mental space derived from the work of Bick (1968), Meltzer (1975) and Rey (1994). Beginning psychotherapy with an anor exic patient shows how particular spatial phantasies(1) and practises struc ture the intersubjective relationship between therapist and patient and bet ween patient and aspects of her own experience. In this paper anorexia is c onsidered as a defence against consuming desire for the object(2) (Sohn, 19 85). Copyright (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.