Anorexia Nervosa and First-Person Perspective: Altruism, Family System, and Body Experience

Englebert, Jérôme; Follet, Valérie; Valentiny, Caroline

doi:10.1159/000485629

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…as outside of her control (see Legrand & Briend 2015). Indeed, Englebert et al (2018) suggest that one way in which individuals with AN seek to avoid having control exerted over them by others, is to adopt food-practices where they are in control of providing food for others, thus ensuring they are not submitted to external command and vulnerability. There are, then, additional aspects of the experience of AN that relate to experiences of being out of control and additional behavioural patterns adopted to reassert a sense of control.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Controlling the Noise: A Phenomenological Account of Anorexia Nervosa and the Threatening Body

Osler¹

2021

Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology

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Anorexia Nervosa (AN) is a complex disorder characterised by selfstarvation, an act of self-destruction. It is often described as a disorder marked by paradoxes and, despite extensive research attention, is still not well understood.Much AN research focuses upon the distorted body image that individuals with AN supposedly experience. However, based upon reports from individuals describing their own experience of AN, I argue that their bodily experience is much more complex than this focus might lead us to believe. Such research often presents an overly cognitive understanding of bodily experience in AN, underplaying the affective, felt experience of individuals with AN, as well as descriptions of empowerment, strength and control reported in the early stages of AN. This paper seeks to enrich our understanding of bodily experience in AN as it progresses throughout the various stages of the disorder. I show how the classical phenomenological distinction between the body-as-subject and the body-as-object, as well as Leder's conception of the visceral body, can inform our understanding of bodily experience in AN. I suggest that the project of self-starvation is an attempt to overcome the noisy demands of the visceral body, which are experienced as threatening the body-as-subject, through a process of objectifying the body-asobject. By cashing out AN as a project of radical bodily control that, tragically, comes to control the individual, we can capture important aspects of the bodily experience of AN and the temporal progression of the disorder.

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confidence: 99%

Controlling the Noise: A Phenomenological Account of Anorexia Nervosa and the Threatening Body

Osler¹

2021

Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology

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“…However, the realm of phenomenology has emerged as a valuable tool in unraveling the psychological and subjective processes at play, enabling a comprehensive and profound understanding of these phenomena. As phenomenology considers the first-person perspective as its primary focus, an increasing number of researchers have recently started to pay attention to it [4,6,8,[16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. When delving into the study of AN from a phenomenological viewpoint, scholars frequently direct their focus toward eminent phenomenologists like Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, and Heidegger.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reframing Anorexia Nervosa: A Phenomenological Exploration of the Self-Other Relationship with Husserl’s Intersubjective Theory

Zhang

2023

Psychopathology

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This paper explores the overlooked contributions of Husserl’s Phenomenology of intersubjectivity in understanding anorexia nervosa. It highlights the intricate relationship between the self and others, emphasizing their mutual constitution while acknowledging inherent differences. The distorted body image approach often overlooks this perspective, leading to psychopathological issues in individuals with anorexia nervosa. By integrating subjective experience and external observation, a more balanced and equal intersubjective relationship can be established. Utilizing this philosophical framework allows for a deeper understanding of the disorder’s dynamics and sheds new light on the subjective experiences of individuals with anorexia nervosa in relation to others.

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“…In this regard, the perspective of the patient undergoing treatment is increasingly considered an essential source of information (Binder, Holgorsen & Nielsen, 2009; McLeod, 2016; Strupp & Hadley, 1977; Valkonen, Hanninen & Lindfors, 2011). This first -person perspective stands for the subjective experience, personal view or opinion of patients and must be considered distinct from a researcher or third -person perspective represented in the pre-defined questions and answers of standard outcome scales (Englebert, Follet & Valentiny, 2017; Englebert et al, 2018; Hill et al, 2013). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding Long-term Outcome from the Patients’ Perspective: A Mixed Methods Naturalistic Study on Inpatient Psychotherapy

Smet¹,

Meganck

2018

PSYCHOL BELG

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Objective:The complex phenomenon of psychotherapy outcome requires further conceptual and methodological developments that facilitate clinically meaningful research findings. In this study, we rely on an idiosyncratic and process-oriented understanding of treatment effects in order to investigate long-term outcome. A conceptual model of long-term outcome is presented that comprises both a taxonomy of change and explanatory factors.Method:A mixed methods naturalistic study was conducted in an inpatient psychotherapy setting. Long-term quantitative outcome data are complemented with a data-driven thematic analysis of interviews with 22 participants, five to six years after ending inpatient psychotherapy.Results:Long-term outcome findings show improved well-being for the majority of former patients and this until five to six years after treatment. From the patients’ perspectives, long-term changes can be situated on different interrelated existential levels: reconnection to others and (the meaning of) life, a revelation, an altered self, life changes, and altered expectations and ideas about recovery and treatment. The complex interplay of the person, the therapy centre, the outside world and the evolution over time helped explain the experienced changes and individual differences.Conclusion:The findings support the value of an idiosyncratic and process-oriented understanding of outcome and recovery as well as substantiate the importance of multiple methods and perspectives when studying the effects of psychotherapy.

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Anorexia Nervosa and First-Person Perspective: Altruism, Family System, and Body Experience

Cited by 6 publications

References 13 publications

Controlling the Noise: A Phenomenological Account of Anorexia Nervosa and the Threatening Body

Controlling the Noise: A Phenomenological Account of Anorexia Nervosa and the Threatening Body

Reframing Anorexia Nervosa: A Phenomenological Exploration of the Self-Other Relationship with Husserl’s Intersubjective Theory

Understanding Long-term Outcome from the Patients’ Perspective: A Mixed Methods Naturalistic Study on Inpatient Psychotherapy

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