The Biological Unconscious

This chapter builds an alternative theory of anatomy, via the clinical psychoanalytic work of Sándor Ferenczi, that might be helpful for feminist theorizing about the mind and body. The first part of the chapter follows Ferenczi’s hypothesis about the psychological character of the anatomical body (the biological unconscious). This work is used to argue that rather than turning away from anatomy, feminist theorists could turn toward anatomy more attentively, particularly in order to see what minded capacities the biological periphery holds. The second half of the chapter looks at how pharmaceutical data about the treatment of bulimia provide a means for thinking differently about the nature of mind-body.