Diagnosing Vigorexia

All too often, one fails to perceive how stringently a psychological and psychiatric diagnosis reflects judgment based on normative and cognitive-ideological criteria. In dealing with the recently-defined condition known as vigorexia, for example, experts consider the individual’s dissatisfaction and excessive attention toward his/her physical appearance, their insecurity and the ritualistic nature of their physical training regimes, to be symptoms of the “disturbance”, while to one experiencing the condition—the body-builder—such attitudes and behavior may merely be corollary to fitness-oriented activities. Such activities may involve control over one’s body and self-image, as well as gratification from peer approval. The gymnasium may also represent an extreme locus serving to endow one with a new identity, as occurs today in the cyberspace of role-playing or second-life games; it may imply the overcoming of old experiences and self-images in order to challenge the anonymous forms of identity which may seem imposed by destiny. Body-building, then, might be an emerging cultural expression comparable to others linked to the need of “taking care of oneself”.