Bodies in Flow with Drugs: A Case Study of Life Histories of Women Taking Anorectic Agents

This study explores the life histories of women who have taken anorectic agents, classified as psychotropic substances in South Korea. It aims to answer the question: "What compels women to exceed the recommended dosage and duration of anorectic agents as imposed by pharmacological institutions?" To address this, I conducted life-history interviews with 10 women who have been taking these agents for more than three years. Using "Bodily Sociology"—an analytical framework synthesizing theories on the body and materiality from Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari, Karen Barad, and Bruno Latour—this study conceptualizes human and nonhuman bodies as dynamic entities that transform through encounters, tracing these transformations as "matter-flows." The consumption of anorectic agents is viewed as an event where women's bodies, shaped by decades of experience, intersect with the pharmacological bodies of drugs, which have undergone research, clinical trials, marketing, and even market withdrawal. Women’s bodies do not passively react to drugs, nor are the drugs predetermined in their effects. Rather, through these encounters, both the women's lives and the drugs themselves are transformed, altering the drugs’ meanings and physical effects. Anorectic agents may serve as stimulants, tools to achieve personal goals, or aids in sexual relationships, depending on the life-historical context. Conversely, the drugs reshape women’s lives by reorganizing their routines around medical appointments and prescriptions, while guiding their life trajectories through affective experiences such as pleasure from weight loss and anxiety from dependence. This study contributes to the Sociology of the body and Science Technology Studies by rethinking human and nonhuman bodies and emphasizes that agents are also patients who undergo continuous transformation through intra-actions that can be found amid bodily historical networks.