Problematizing psychotherapy: The discursive production of a bulimic

This paper explores the discursive production of a psychologized bulimic su bject. Two processes are highlighted through a case study, both influencing the production of the bulimic: therapeutic operations of power; and the su bjugation of non-psy accounts of bulimia. Power mechanisms in therapy encou rage the client to construct a complex psychological subjectivity, enabling a psychological, self-contained account of her eating disorder, thereby fa cilitating 'therapeutic' change. However, the condition for therapy is the disguised subjugation of client, lay and erudite non-psy accounts. The conc ealment of power operations reinforces psy's hegemony in defining the perso n--and the bulimic--in western culture. After problematizing psy discourses , a non-psychologized feminist discourse is hypothetically considered, and dialogue with this discourse suggested. A feminist discourse does not requi re ideals of self-containment, nor complex psy accounts, but nevertheless o ffers the bulimic a range of political subjectivities as a discursive prior ity, rather than psychological complexity.