Questioning the Body Today

We live in strange, paradoxical times – times when very often contradictory ways of thinking coexist. This is true also for our relationship with our bodies. Here, by “body”, I mean above all our body, our own body, in particular the physical body. On the one hand in fact, our body may be cared for, may be an object of attention – even pampered; on the other hand, it may be manipulated, changed – even tortured. In one way, it is interpreted as something to be cherished, safeguarded, protected; while in another way, we relate to our body as if it were something to be controlled, as if it were at our disposal. Thus, just as the body may be cherished, so it may be destroyed; just as it may be enhanced in its power, so it may be used and consumed. In other words, nowadays the body, our body is at the same time something that we can try to make everlasting or, quite simply, annihilate. In my paper I examine this ambiguous and paradoxical situation in depth. My research serve to provide a less schizophrenic relationship with the way we are and will be of help to us in taking better care of ourselves. To this end, I briefly discuss several ways in which we relate to our bodies nowadays, i.e. ways that are expressed in the figure of the body exhibited, the body transformed, the body decorated, the body patient, the body controlled and the body virtual.