“Others-in-Law”: Legalism in the Economy of Religious Differences

Religious legalism encompasses a wide range of attitudes that assign religious meaning to legal content or to legal compliance. The phenomenology of religious legalism is assuming a significant role in various contemporary debates about legal pluralism, accommodation of religious minorities, religious freedom, and so forth. This article revises this conception and the commonplace equation of Judaism and legalism. It suggests that we ought to regard both as part of the economy of religious differences by which religious identities are expressed and defined as alternatives. The common ascription of religious legalism to Judaism (and Islam) is criticized here through a historical analysis of the law-religion-identity matrix in three cultural settings: late ancient Judeo-Hellenic, medieval Judeo–Arabic, and post-Reformation Europe

Body image perception and preference in anorexia nervosa

Nineteen female anorexic patients (10 anorexic-abstainers and 9 anorexics with episodes of bulimia) and 19 matched normal weight females participated in a study designed to investigate underlying dimensions of body image perception and body image preferences. The test materials consisted of a series of silhouettes which varied systematically in the sizes of four body parts: breasts, abdomen, buttocks, and legs. First, the subjects sorted the silhouettes into categories, Subjects then ordered the silhouettes along a 100-unit scale reflecting their preference for each silhouette. Finally, the subjects selected the silhouette which resembled themselves most and completed a semantic differential for this and the most and least preferred silhouettes. Multidimensional scaling analyses (INDSCAL & PREFMAP) were performed. Five underlying dimensions of perception were interpreted: four of those dealt with size of buttocks and abdomen and one with breast size. The dimensions were similar for both groups. Contrary to expectation, no group differences were found regarding body image preferences. Subjects within each group were heterogeneous. Preference ratings of own body silhouette were significantly lower for anorexic abstainers than for bulimic anorexics (p < .05) and normal controls (p < .01). The semantic differential scales yielded no group differences. It was concluded that variables other than a distorted body image and a thin), body image ideal are important to the etiology of anorexia nervosa; future research should investigate alternative etiological concepts such as weight phobia and fear of losing control. The distinction between anorexic abstainers and bulimic anorexics appears to be useful and the characteristics of these subgroups need to be investigated further.Arts, Faculty ofPsychology, Department ofGraduat

Eating in anorexia nervosa and bulimia : an application of the tri-partite model of anxiety

Although many factors have been Implicated in the etiology and maintenance of anorexia nervosa and bulimia, anxiety, particularly in the context of eating, may be critical. Applying the tri-partite model of anxiety, this study was designed to assess anxiety before, during, and after eating in eating disorder and normal control subjects. The experimental eating procedure was preceded by a neutral task. Four groups of ten female subjects each participated: normal-weight females, restricting-anorexics, bulimic-anorexics, and bulimics. Anxiety was assessed by self-report (ratings of pleasure, arousal, and anxiety), psychophysiological (heart rate and skin conductance) and behavioural (food consumption) measures. Controls reported themselves to be non-anxious throughout the study arid ate almost all of the small test meal. Somewhat surprisingly, physiological arousal (especially heart rate) was high during eating. During the neutral task, heart rate declined slightly in all groups. The eating disorder groups indicated a high level of anxiety throughout the study which showed a trend to increase further during eating. In addition, anorexics and bulimics described dysfunctional beliefs regarding the effects of eating on body shape and weight. Similar to controls, physiological arousal was high during eating. Overall, heart rate proved to be a more useful measure of arousal than skin conductance because many anorexics were hyporesponsive. Restricting-anorexics ate the least amount, bulimic-anorexics ate slightly more, and bulimics ate similar amounts to controls. Thus, food consumption was probably associated with weight status. Several conclusions were drawn. Women with eating disorders have a high level of general anxiety probably because of a conflict between biological pressures to eat and fears of weight gain. The high physiological arousal during eating appears to reinforce perceptions of anxiety. The eating disorder groups showed different degrees of concordance among measures of anxiety. Borrowing from the research on phobias, therapeutic procedures such as cognitive therapy, progressive relaxation, and exposure treatments can address the different components of anxiety anorexics and bulimics experience during eating.Arts, Faculty ofPsychology, Department ofGraduat