12
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
0 collections
    0
    shares
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: found
      Is Open Access

      The disappearing body: anorexia as a conflict of embodiment

      research-article
      Eating and Weight Disorders
      Springer International Publishing
      Anorexia nervosa, Embodiment, Lived body, Object body, Body image

      Read this article at

      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          Anorexia nervosa is often regarded primarily as a disorder of the body image, with affected individuals submitting themselves to the dictate of a predominant model of slenderness. However, even though this frequently functions as a gateway to the disorder, the paper intends to show that the actual conflict in anorexia consists in a fundamental alienation of the self from the body. In order to analyze this alienation from a phenomenological point of view, the paper introduces the polarity of lived body (body-as-subject) and physical body (body-as-object). It then explores the phenomenology of anorexia, drawing on characteristic self-reports as well as on the phenomenological, psychoanalytic and cultural science literature. The anorexic conflict of embodiment arises in adolescence, where the body becomes an object of the other’s gaze in a special way. Starting with an attempt to comply with the ideal body image, the anorexic patient increasingly fights against her dependency on her body and its uncontrollable nature, above all its hunger and femininity. To be in total control of her body and to gain independence from it, becomes the source of a narcissistic triumph. Thus, in striving for autonomy and perfection, the anorexic patient alienates herself from her embodiment. This results in a radical dualism of ‘mind’ and ‘body’: pursuing the ideal of an asexual, angelic, even disappearing body. Anorexia is thus conceived as a fundamental conflict of embodiment.

          Related collections

          Most cited references50

          • Record: found
          • Abstract: found
          • Article: not found

          Incidence, prevalence and mortality of anorexia nervosa and other eating disorders.

          The purpose of this review is to evaluate the recent literature on the incidence and prevalence of and mortality associated with eating disorders. General-practice studies show that the overall incidence rates of anorexia nervosa remained stable during the 1990s, compared with the 1980s. Some evidence suggests that the occurrence of bulimia nervosa is decreasing. Anorexia nervosa is a common disorder among young white females, but is extremely rare among black females. Recent studies confirm previous findings of the high mortality rate within the anorexia nervosa population. The incidence of anorexia nervosa is around eight per 100,000 persons per year. An upward trend has been observed in the incidence of anorexia nervosa in the past century till the 1970s. The most substantial increase was among females aged 15-24 years, for whom a significant increase was observed from 1935 to 1999. The average prevalence rates for anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa among young females are 0.3 and 1%, respectively. Only a minority of people with eating disorders, especially with bulimia nervosa, are treated in mental healthcare.
            Bookmark
            • Record: found
            • Abstract: not found
            • Book: not found

            Unbearable weight feminism, western culture and the body

              Bookmark
              • Record: found
              • Abstract: not found
              • Article: not found

              Corporealized and disembodied minds: a phenomenological view of the body in melancholia and schizophrenia

                Bookmark

                Author and article information

                Contributors
                thomas.fuchs@urz.uni-heidelberg.de
                Journal
                Eat Weight Disord
                Eat Weight Disord
                Eating and Weight Disorders
                Springer International Publishing (Cham )
                1124-4909
                1590-1262
                5 March 2021
                5 March 2021
                2022
                : 27
                : 1
                : 109-117
                Affiliations
                GRID grid.5253.1, ISNI 0000 0001 0328 4908, Psychiatrische Universitätsklinik, ; Voss-Str. 4, 69115 Heidelberg, Germany
                Author information
                http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9466-4956
                Article
                1122
                10.1007/s40519-021-01122-7
                8860785
                33666885
                1f525aa0-59d4-432f-b8b0-0ef09e253d28
                © The Author(s) 2021

                Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

                History
                : 22 November 2020
                : 19 January 2021
                Categories
                Original Article
                Custom metadata
                © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022

                anorexia nervosa,embodiment,lived body,object body,body image

                Comments

                Comment on this article