Eating Disorders and Attachment

Eating disorders have become extremely common in today\u27s society. The individuals most commonly affected by eating disorders have been women. This is often the result of societal demands, and can be greatly influenced by the relationships a woman has with her parents. The purpose of this study was to focus specifically on the father-daughter relationship of college women diagnosed with an eating disorder compared to those without a diagnosed eating disorder. Additionally, the romantic attachment styles of both sets of young women were explored. College women from a private university in the southeast were administered a demographic survey, the Adult Parental Acceptance Rejection/ Control Questionnaire, and the Intimate Partner Acceptance-Rejection! Control Questionnaire. It was hypothesized that there would be a significant relationship between having an eating disorder and the quality of both the father-daughter relationship and adult romantic attachment style, as compared to those surveyed without an eating disorder. Finally, there will be a significant effect of being diagnosed with an eating disorder on the scores of the APARQIC and IPARlCQ

Disordered Eating Habits and Theory of Mind in Undergraduate Students

Theory of mind, the ability to ascribe mental states to oneself and others, has intimate connections with mental disorders like autism and schizophrenia. Recent research has suggested a connection between eating disorders and theory of mind ability, but these findings have been mixed. The idea that disorders lie along a continuum (Johns & van Os, 2001) leads to the hypothesis that people with disordered eating habits will have a lesser theory of mind ability than those without. Data was collected on 25 undergraduate students at Butler University. Results showed a positive correlation between theory of mind and negative eating attitudes. Although the sample size was small, the present results suggest that individuals with more negative eating attitudes are better at understanding others’ mental states

The quantification of gender: Anorexia nervosa and femininity

The ways in which Anorexia Nervosa (AN) has been described and explained has differed drastically over time although since it was first named in 1874 it has been primarily associated with women and girls it is argued in this paper that it came to be more fundamentally associated with femininity due to certain disciplinary changes in the psy sciences. The influential psychiatrist Hilde Bruch lamented the loss in clarity of the clinical picture that was the result of psychoanalytic interpretations, to remedy this she reformulated AN into a pathology that was the result of the individual being too determined by external influences. Bruch’s changes increased the emphasis that psychiatrists placed on the relationship between women and their social context and the lack of individual autonomy that many felt. Feminist writers adapted Bruch’s theory to suggest that patriarchal culture was colonizing the lives of women and that social rather than individual change needed to occur. Psychiatrists subsequently developed scales for assessing gender identity which switched the emphasis back onto individuals and rendered gender as an individualised, quantifiable, manipulable object. When reified and individualised in this fashion it became more legitimate to discuss femininity as causative of, and masculinity as a protection against, AN

‘That perfect girl is gone’:Pro-ana, Anorexia and Frozen (2013) as an ‘Eating Disorder’ Film

The study of pro-anorexia (pro-ana) sites occupies a significant place in critical feminist work on eating disorders. But pro-ana sites have been studied as particular subcultural spaces which function to produce communities, identity positions and modes of subversive/ conformist femininities. Although anorexia might often be experienced as all-encompassing, people who are anorexic/ pro-anorexic don’t just ‘do’ anorexia. They also participate in everyday activities like engaging with media and as with ‘normal’ audiences, such encounters provide important resources for identity construction. In drawing on the feminist bid to challenge the conception of anorexic voices as pathological and ‘sick’, existing only ‘outside of the true’ (Saukko 2008, 77), this article explores a sample of pro-ana responses to Frozen, undertaking an analysis of the ways in which Frozen has been understood as an ‘eating disorder’ film and used in relation to pro-anorexic/ anorexic identities

‘Blindness to the obvious’?: Treatment experiences and feminist approaches to eating disorders

Eating disorders (EDs) are now often approached as biopsychosocial problems, but the social or cultural aspects of the equation are often marginalised in treatment - relegated to mere contributory or facilitating factors. In contrast, feminist and socio-cultural approaches are primarily concerned with the relationship between EDs and the social/ cultural construction of gender. Yet although such approaches emerged directly from the work of feminist therapists, the feminist scholarship has increasingly observed, critiqued and challenged the biomedical model from a scholarly distance. As such, this article draws upon data from 15 semi-structured interviews with women in the UK context who have experience of anorexia and/or bulimia in order to explore a series of interlocking themes concerning the relationship between gender identity and treatment. In engaging the women in debate about the feminist approaches (something which has been absent from previous feminist work), the article explores how gender featured in their own understandings of their problem, and the ways in which it was - or rather wasn’t - addressed in treatment. The article also explores the women’s evaluations of the feminist discourse, and their discussions of how it might be implemented within therapeutic and clinical contexts

Body Image in Long Distance Runners

In lieu of an abstract, below is the essay\u27s first paragraph. How would you describe the ideal runner’s body? Would you say it is tall or short? Skinny or fat? Muscular or lean? Is it the same as society’s ideal female’s body? A Division 2 collegiate female distance runner recently stated, “The ideal runner’s body is having a six pack and muscular quads and an overall skinny physique. The ideal female body, from what I gather from society, is having larger breasts and a butt, nice hair and a nice face. Runners do not always have the biggest extremities, so that makes me feel more self-conscious about my body because I definitely look and feel like a distance runner.” This runner’s response is just one of the many examples of how there is a conflict between what it means to want an ideal runner’s body, and the value of it for competing in the sport verses the reality of the American societal ideal

A systematic review of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender health in the West Midlands region of the UK compared to published UK research

It is estimated that approximately 3-8% of the UK population identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or trans (LGBT). Until now, most health research on gay and bisexual men has been around HIV, AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases and for trans people has been on the transitioning process only. However, it has been apparent to the LGBT community that that there are a wide variety of other physical and mental health issues that are also important and that the proportion of gay and bisexual men who have HIV/AIDS is relatively small. Very little general LGBT health research has been published so far and there are very few health services that specifically address the general health concerns of the LGBT community. This systematic review presents all available research conducted in the West Midlands on LGBT health since 2000. Local health research is compared to UK national, peer reviewed and published LGBT health research in order to determine whether the local results are unusual compared to national LGBT data, and to routinely collected data on the UK population, where appropriate, in order to determine whether and where the LGBT population differ from the general population. Only UK research has been included because there was no previous UK specific systematic review so it was unclear how generalisable foreign research would be to the UK

The anorexic mind

Anorexia and all eating disorders alike affect fundamental relationships between individuals and their bodies. This book portrays the eternal pain of the anorexic mind. Marilyn Lawrence traces the psychological origins of anorexia and discusses the fallacy of the ideal weight, size and shape that some women in anguish may compulsively seek

'The Young Hunger Artists: The Portrayal of Eating Disorders by Contemporary Austrian Women Writers'

This paper explores how the abuse of food by young women is an expression of the need for attention as well as a form of self-punishment in psychological and physiological terms. In Anna Mitgutsch’s novel “Die Züchtigung” (“Punishment”, 1985) the daughter attempts to hinder the development of her femininity in order to abate her mother’s increasing hatred of her. At the same time she binges to prove to the rest of society that her mother has been feeding her well and is therefore a ‘good’ mother. In this ambivalent mother-daughter relationship Mitgutsch illustrates how the daughter agonises over her mother’s self-sacrifice, whilst eating/not eating in an almost sacrificial manner. Later she diets to please her lover and in the process becomes anorexic. This obsessive behaviour is the focus of Helene Flöss’ “Dürre Jahre” (“The Lean Years”, 1998). Here the desire to have the figure of a model begins at the age of 15 and ends after 7 years of calorie counting in a psychiatric ward for psychosomatics, where the protagonist weighs just 34 kilos. Both Mitgutsch’s and Flöss’ novels feature young women who suffer at the hands of family and social pressures, so much so that they are prepared to starve and are starved of love