Death, jouissance and the bodybuilder

In the last five years the bodybuilding industry has been shaken by a significant number of high-profile deaths caused by a combination of the cocktail of drugs (anabolic-androgenic steroids, growth hormone, insulin and diuretics) and the heavy bodyweights required to place well in competitions that are not drug tested. This article uses Lacan’s redevelopment of the Freudian concept of the death drive to study the sport’s discursive output—its forums, adverts and interviews—to understand the attachment of bodybuilders and bodybuilding fans to an activity that bewilders non-participants, has little financial reward and obvious negative health ramifications.