Comfort food and anxiety: a psychoanalytic account of appetite under capitalism

Food is something of an abiding cultural preoccupation - ever-expanding sections of bookshops devoted to cookbooks; chefs like Anthony Bourdain, Gordon Ramsay, Nigella, the celebrities of our age; tv food competitions proliferate. We seem to enjoy our appetites, we take comfort in food. On the other hand, there’s wellness diets, paleo diets, keto diets, Ozempic – symptoms of a desire to obliterate appetite altogether. Psychoanalyst and Professor of Modern Literary Theory at Goldsmiths, University of London, Josh Cohen,  reflects on these contradictions and the disordered and divided appetites of the modern individual.

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