Anorexia nervosa and the body image Myth

Zanker, Cathy

doi:10.1002/erv.959

Cited by 6 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Engaging with Lacey's statement that 'people don't see sort of, what's underneath [anorexia],' this paper has sought to explore experiences of eating disorders beyond the lens of emaciation (see also Fox & Leung, 2009;Gooldin, 2008;Lask & Frampton, 2009;Zanker, 2009). Through 'roaming and meanders,' which Coles (2013: 256; see also Geertz, 2010) has argued are 'implicit in any consideration of topology,' it has traced the multi-directionality of relationships among food practices, emaciation and desire.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These accounts support analyses of anorexia as 'a functional coping strategy in which control of eating serve[s] as a means of coping with ongoing stress and exerting control' (Eivors et al 2003: 96. Also Treasure andSchmidt 2008;Williams and Reid 2009;Zanker 2009). Whilst these discussions often portray the body as the locus of that control, they also highlight cognitive processes through which self-starvation regulates affect.…”

Section: Not Eating As Self-anaesthetisationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Reflections and Clinical Implications: Finding Meaning Within Anorexia Or 'Starting To Taste Other Way Of Living'?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…62). Self-starvation as a modality of selfcare through anaesthetisation casts a different light on how 'the removal of ingrained anorexic behaviours leaves the patient feeling desperately out of control' (Zanker 2009: 329); it shows quite how tactile that feeling is. If not eating maintains anorexia, and emaciation allows it to be reassuringly measured through the body, the weight gain of treatment potentially demonstrates a profound loss.…”

Section: Reflections and Clinical Implications: Finding Meaning Within Anorexia Or 'Starting To Taste Other Way Of Living'?mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Not Eating or Tasting Other Ways to Live: A Qualitative Analysis of ‘Living Through’ and Desiring to Maintain Anorexia

Lavis

2018

Transcult Psychiatry

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Whilst recent discussions of anorexia nervosa have recognised key aspects of the illness experience, such as control and emotion regulation, there remains a cross-disciplinary emphasis on body image concerns as central. In dialogue with clinical, psychological and social analyses, this paper draws on ethnography and qualitative interviews with individuals diagnosed with anorexia to offer an alternative perspective. Focusing on individuals' engagements with food and (not) eating suggests that material moments of starving, calorie counting, and thinking about food provide a critical lens onto what anorexia does for, as well as to, individuals living with the illness. Participants' narratives suggest that anorexia can make it possible to retreat into a numb and protective 'bubble.' The illness may thereby offer a way to be in the world that both responds to and ameliorates distress; some individuals describe the ambivalent 'safety' of living through their anorexia. As such, food practices are a modality of holding onto anorexia's valued safety. By outlining this relationship between practices of (not) eating and a desire amongst some individuals to maintain the illness, this paper contributes to discussions of treatment resistance. Intersecting with wider reflections on trauma, recovery and harm minimisation in mental health, the discussion considers how this desire might be approached ethically in both research and therapeutic practice. Individuals' narratives suggest the need to reposition attention away from anorexia itself to the distress and traumatic life events that may underlie both the illness and the desire to maintain it.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Not Eating As Self-anaesthetisationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Reflections and Clinical Implications: Finding Meaning Within Anorexia Or 'Starting To Taste Other Way Of Living'?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Reflections and Clinical Implications: Finding Meaning Within Anorexia Or 'Starting To Taste Other Way Of Living'?mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Not Eating or Tasting Other Ways to Live: A Qualitative Analysis of ‘Living Through’ and Desiring to Maintain Anorexia

Lavis

2018

Transcult Psychiatry

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“…Esta situación de estancamiento en el desarrollo de tratamientos más eficaces está ligada a la concepción predominante de la anorexia nerviosa que asume el papel central de los trastornos de la imagen corporal y la internalización del ideal de la delgadez. Este exceso de énfasis en la imagen corporal está siendo progresivamente cuestionada por los propios pacientes (Zanker, 2009) y por profesionales que dudan del papel causal del contexto cultural de la idealización de la delgadez, ya que: "aunque la mayoría de las adolescentes hacen dietas, menos de un 1% desarrollan anorexia nerviosa, por lo que otros factores deben contribuir para que de la restricción de la alimentación se pase a una implacable persecución de la delgadez" (Casper, 2002, p.91). Por otra parte, en ese paso que va de la dieta a la restricción extrema, la voluntad de las pacientes se ha exagerado en la literatura sin ningún tipo de evidencia (Striegel-Moore & Bulik, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionunclassified

Anorexia nerviosa : ¿la rata o el diván? = Anorexia nervosa : The rator the couch?

García

2011

Acción psicol.

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ResumenUn breve resumen de la historia de las concepciones de la anorexia nerviosa destaca la pobreza de los resultados obtenidos por los tratamientos psicológicos y farmacológicos asociados a esas concepciones. Una perspectiva diferente del trastorno se encuentra en la investigación con el modelo animal análogo conocido como Anorexia Basada en la Actividad (ABA). Según este modelo la hiperactividad no se considera como una estrategia voluntaria y deliberada para quemar calorías, sino como una respuesta bio-conductual provocada por los efectos fisiológicos de la pérdida de peso. Los resultados beneficiosos de la administración de calor, que permite recuperarse a los animales, constituyen una evidencia pre-clínica del potencial terapéu-tico de la administración de calor a los pacientes con anorexia nerviosa, que fue una de las primeras recomendaciones en la historia del tratamiento de este trastorno. AbstractA review of the history of anorexia nervosa emphasizes the poor results obtained by the psychological and pharmacological treatments associated with the different changing conceptualization through time. Research with an analogous animal model known as Activity-based Anorexia (ABA) offers a different perspective of the human disorder. According to this animal model, hyperactivity is not considered to be a wilful strategy to burn calories, but a bio-behavioural response linked to the physiological effects of weight loss. The increase of ambient temperature allowed rescuing animals from ABA, constituting a pre-clinical evidence of the potential therapeutic role of heat application to anorexia nervosa patients, which was one of the first recommendations in the history of the treatment of this disorder.

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Trauma and Eating Disorder

Holman¹

2012

Eating and Its Disorders

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Anorexia nervosa and the body image Myth

Cited by 6 publications

References 24 publications

Not Eating or Tasting Other Ways to Live: A Qualitative Analysis of ‘Living Through’ and Desiring to Maintain Anorexia

Not Eating or Tasting Other Ways to Live: A Qualitative Analysis of ‘Living Through’ and Desiring to Maintain Anorexia

Anorexia nerviosa : ¿la rata o el diván? = Anorexia nervosa : The rator the couch?

Trauma and Eating Disorder

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