The gym — the church of self-hatred
Walk into any gym. You will see people in carefully chosen clothes that display and compete. Men watching themselves in the mirror between sets, assessing. Then someone walks in — more muscular, more lean. Watch what happens to the faces. The eyes go down. The next set begins with more fury and less joy.
For many people who struggle with their body image, the gym does not function as a place of health but as an arena of comparison and self-criticism — systematically reinforcing the feeling of not being enough.
What Philippe observes
Walk into any gym. You will see people in carefully chosen clothes that display and compete. Men watching themselves in the mirror between sets, assessing. Then someone walks in — more muscular, more lean. Watch what happens to the faces. The eyes go down. The next set begins with more fury and less joy.
What you will not see, with any regularity, is people smiling. People having fun. People at ease in their bodies.
The historical shift
The gym was not always this. In its earlier function, the gym served a sport — conditioning the body for something else. It was a means, subordinate to a purpose beyond itself.
At some point, the gym became the end. Bodybuilding, fitness, physique became sports in themselves. The body stopped being the vehicle and became the project. And as a project, the body is inexhaustible in its capacity to disappoint. There is always more to achieve. The mirror does not confirm progress — it identifies the next deficiency.
Less than
For many people who struggle with body image, the gym provides a reliable, socially acceptable arena in which to feel inadequate. The self-hatred has found its church.
Health — genuine physical health — tends to feel good. It produces energy, ease, and pleasure in movement. What the gym produces in these patients is exhaustion, vigilance, and a mood that falls whenever someone more physically impressive enters the room. This is not health. It is self-punishment with a structured programme.
“The gym, for many of the people I work with, is not a place of health. It is the church of self-hatred. You go, you look in the mirror, and for a moment you almost feel enough — and then someone walks in, and you feel less than again. You cannot win in a space organised around comparison, because comparison has no floor.” — Philippe Jacquet
Book a consultation with Philippe Jacquet — psychotherapist and Jungian analyst, London.