Fixating on the oral: Today's common obsessions

James Baldwin once said, “Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.” There have been great movements throughout time based on change. Recently, however, grand movements of change (such those seen throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries wherein entire nations of peoples have rebuilt every facet of their lives) have withered down to more individually-focused movements. Improving oneself has become the main focus of today’s members of society. In an age focused on the individual, there is a realization that making changes in individuals becomes as multifaceted as the subjects themselves. With issues varying from the mass media’s portrayal of ‘beautiful people’ to the everyday struggle for ‘keeping up with the Jones’, it is now, more than ever, easy to see how one can become stressed. And, as many researchers have noted, stress leads inevitably to certain individual changes; whether they be behavioral or psychological.

[...] high prevalence of obesity combined with the effects on morbidity suggests a need for public health policy to address obesity.”[16] Obesity is closely linked with binge-eating disorder. Having reviewed the psychological and physical detriments caused by obesity, social impacts must be reviewed. Linda S. Mintle, Ph.D., states that, “Obesity may be a medical state but people create the psychological burden associated with it. Often, the pain involves self-hatred that can lead to depression and anxiety, social isolation and alienation.”[17] Not only can depression and anxiety lead to social alienation or isolation, but outside peer exile can also force obese children to become alienated or isolated.[18] These social issues face many Canadians today. [...]

[...] It is as if they were seeking the pleasures they missed in infancy.”[4] “[Orally] [aggressive] people retain a life- long desire to bite on things, such as pencils, gum, and other people. They have a tendency to be verbally aggressive, argumentative, sarcastic, and so Thus, as argued by Freud, conflicts at the oral stage produce a certain type of individual. Habitual gum chewers, overeaters, and smokers fall into this category of individuals. Oral Fixation Chewing Gum Commonly disregarded as a habit-forming product, chewing gum is not new to the marketing scene. [...]

[...] University of Maryland Medical Center. (2008). Obesity. Retrieved 26 January 2009, from . K. D. Raine. (2004). Overweight and Obesity in Canada: A Population Health Perspective. Retrieved 2 February 2009, from . at 25. L. S. Mintle. (2009). The Social Stigma of Obesity. Retrieved 2 February 2009, from . R. Puhl. Understanding the Stigma of Obesity and Its Consequences. Retrieved 26 January 2009, from . Statistics Canada. (2004) Canadian Community Health Survey: Obesity Among Children and Adults. [...]