Moving Beyond Routines in Teaching and Learning: Releasing the Educative Potential of Published Eating Disorder Memoirs

Abstract

Learning from the lived experience of disordered eating is vital for contemporary mental health practitioners. While mental health practitioners need to understand the psycho-biological issues that impact the person and family with an eating disorder, there is much about this complex condition that eludes and escapes a bio-medical perspective. Use of an aesthetic lens on the issue can illuminate various challenges, tensions and insights that people with disordered eating experience along the journey of their ill-health and on to their recovery, but which often remain unstated in the clinical context. Scholars within the creative arts discipline are experts in making judgements about the quality of artworks they encounter and have highly developed aesthetic knowing. Yet, the central skills and knowledges embodied in creative arts activity are not widely utilized outside that sphere. This article reports on how aesthetics can be applied to sensitize mental health practitioners to appreciate the lived experience of a mental health challenge such as an eating disorder. Such mental health practitioners play an important role in the health service, yet the widespread diffusion of the bio-medical model into mental health, once characterized for its equal emphasis on the psycho-social-cultural, has led to criticisms of an over-focus on illness identification, at the expense of accommodating the meanings of subjective and unique experiences of mental health, struggle and recovery. Using Kate Grenville's typology of the elements of effective creative writing, we show how these elements contribute to the aesthetic power and impact of particular eating disorder memoirs.

Using Memoirs and Autobiographies To Enhance the Teaching of Abnormal Child Psychology

“…In addition, case studies by definition are relatively brief and therefore do not allow an in-depth coverage of the individual’s experiences of the mental disorder. For these reasons, a number of writers have recommended using book-length memoirs and autobiographies in adult-oriented abnormal psychology courses (Brien & McAllister, 2017; Harrawood et al., 2013; LeCroy & Holschuh, 2012; Norcross et al., 2013; Pollack, 2015).…”

“…A number of writers have recommended using memoirs and autobiographies to help enhance the teaching of abnormal psychology (Brien & McAllister, 2017; Deering, 2018; Fisher et al., 2015; Harrawood et al., 2013), but there has been little attention to using these techniques when teaching abnormal child psychology. The purpose of this manuscript is to provide resources for instructors who wish to utilize memoirs and autobiographies for teaching abnormal child psychology.…”

Analyzing a memoir of disability: Utilizing a group writing assignment to increase applicability and comprehension of course material

“…A memoir helps readers to understand the lived experience of an individual with a disability. Memoirs are used widely in undergraduate education, including in abnormal psychology (Norcross, Sommer, & Clifford, 2001), mental health nursing (Lee Brien & McAllister, 2017), English (Brown, 2010), and the humanities (Kreiswirth, 1992). In the helping professions, the goal of using memoir is often to increase student empathy and improve practitioner preparation (Lee Brien & McAllister, 2017;Norcross et al, 2001).…”

“…Memoirs are used widely in undergraduate education, including in abnormal psychology (Norcross, Sommer, & Clifford, 2001), mental health nursing (Lee Brien & McAllister, 2017), English (Brown, 2010), and the humanities (Kreiswirth, 1992). In the helping professions, the goal of using memoir is often to increase student empathy and improve practitioner preparation (Lee Brien & McAllister, 2017;Norcross et al, 2001). Instructors report that these readings are well-received, and students often report learning more from memoirs than they do from traditional textbooks (Banyard, 2000;Norcross et al, 2001).…”

“…The assignment is based on my previous knowledge of the use of memoirs in abnormal psychology and other clinical health professions (Lee Brien & McAllister, 2017;Norcross et al, 2001) combined with the emphasis on memoirs of disability as a form of advocacy and highlighting the insider's perspective (Couser, 2009). I knew that several upper-level courses on disability studies include memoirs as course assignments, and I knew that in many introductory courses, the academic theory and history is covered first with a personal example, like a memoir, introduced after the foundation is laid.…”