Secret Hunger: The Case of Anorexia Nervosa
- PDF / 596,560 Bytes
- 10 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 49 Downloads / 239 Views
Secret Hunger: The Case of Anorexia Nervosa Simona Giordano1 Accepted: 6 September 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Anorexia nervosa is currently classed as a mental disorder. It is considered as a puzzling condition, scarcely understood and recalcitrant to treatment. This paper reviews the main hypotheses relating to the aetiology of anorexia nervosa. In particular, it focuses on family and sociological studies of anorexia. By reflecting on the hypotheses provided within these domains, and on the questions that these studies leave unanswered, this paper suggests that anorexic behaviour is understandable and rational, if seen in light of ordinary moral values. Keywords Anorexia · Eating disorders · Family · Sociological analysis · Moral values · Mind–body dualism
1 Introduction Since its first descriptions, anorexia nervosa has been considered as a mental disorder, and it is still classified as such in the DSM and the ICD (APA 2013, pp. 329–354 and 338–345; WHO 2018). There are several other forms of self-imposed starvation (hunger strike, hunger art, religious fasting) (Dresser 1984). Self-starvation or at least extreme forms of dieting are also central to some sports and professions (for example rock climbing, ballet, modelling in the fashion industry). None of these others have been classified as mental disorders. One likely reason for this difference is that anorexic starvation appears difficult to understand and outright irrational. There appears to be no intelligible purpose in the anorexic starvation, no paradigm of socially intelligible values and purposes. In this paper I argue that, contrary to what might look like, anorexia is not irrational, and it is not unintelligible either. Anorexia makes sense in light of a certain moral background. Many analyses of anorexia have missed this point or have not given it sufficient weight. This paper will be structured as follows: in Sect. 1 I provide a brief description of anorexia. In Sect. 2 and 3 I summarise those that I believe are the most insightful accounts * Simona Giordano [email protected] 1
Law School, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
of anorexia. In Sects. 4 and 5 I identify some questions that these studies leave unanswered and show how certain moral beliefs and values play a key part in the genesis of anorexia. In the final section I consider a remaining question around the anorexic’s ‘real’ control over her choices. For easiness I use the pronouns ‘she’ and ‘her’, as the condition still affects mainly women (1–4% of women compared to 0.3–0.7% of men in Europe according to Keski-Rahkonen and Mustelin 2016), but it must be recognised that men also suffer from eating disorders, and that of course body dissatisfaction can manifest itself in different ways.
2 Anorexia Nervosa: A Brief Account Anorexia nervosa is described as a mental disorder characterised by significantly low body weight, resulting from diet, and often accompanied by purging (self-induced vomiting, abus
Data Loading...
