Anorexia and Bodily Intersubjectivity

Abstract

One’s experiences of hunger, food, eating, and the body are not only subjective but intersubjective: They involve one’s relation to others. On the basis of this observation, what is proposed here is a conception of anorexia as bodily intersubjective: Anorexia would involve, via the manipulation of food and eating behavior, the transformation of the subject’s body, as a way of impacting her relations to others. The anorexic subject would instrumentalize her eating behavior and bodily shape to address others, thereby putting them in a position to respond to her meaningfully, by manifesting their sensitivity to her desire. Importantly, in this view, anorexia is not positioned on the intersubjective scene by opposition to the bodily and alimentary scene; rather, what is proposed is that anorexic sufferance is intersubjective insofar as it is bodily. After some clinical observations describing how anorexia is bodily intersubjective in a concrete way, an overview allows for consideration of whether this conception of anorexia conflicts with or is supported by the main approaches that are currently influential in this field.

Controlling the Noise: A Phenomenological Account of Anorexia Nervosa and the Threatening Body

“…as outside of her control (see Legrand & Briend 2015). Indeed, Englebert et al (2018) suggest that one way in which individuals with AN seek to avoid having control exerted over them by others, is to adopt food-practices where they are in control of providing food for others, thus ensuring they are not submitted to external command and vulnerability.…”

A Search of the Origins of Anorexia Nervosa in Adolescence. A New Treatment Approach

“…The eating behavior and transformation of the subject's body play a role in the family relationship. The anorexia nervosa subject would use as a tool her eating disorder and bodily shape to address others, to manifest her distress or her desire, to put the others, and specially the parents, in a position to answer or to do something for her distress [15]. The study of Rothschild-Yakar et al [16] indicated that anorexia nervosa type patients presented significantly lower metallization levels and lower quality of current relationships with their parents compared with non-eating disorder controls.…”

“…The adolescent who searches for more autonomy, claims with conflict more independence, addresses to their parents to be taken care of by her eating disorder. Anorexia nervosa affects not only the subject's relation to food but also her relation to others [15] and especially to her parents.…”

“…Conflicts with parents become inevitable which reinforce the anorexia behavior. For Legrand & Briend [15] anorexia nervosa subjects struggle with this paradoxical behavior because they fail to negotiate the difference between needs and desire. The desires are often insatiable and whether the parents satisfy the needs, they can't fulfill the unfulfillable desire.…”

“…Following Legrand & Briend [15], the psychotherapies could progress if they avoid the dichotomy to focus on the symptoms or to focus on the social and familial environment. Indeed, anorexia nervosa treatment procedures are often focused on the patients' eating behavior and on any weight gain or loss.…”