Between Difference and Belonging: Configuring Self and Others in Inpatient Treatment for Eating Disorders

Eli, Karin

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0105452

Cited by 30 publications

(69 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Recovery has been shown to be influenced by intake BMI and age of first accessing treatment [ 26 , 29 ], therefore it is imperative that individuals are able to access appropriate treatment without fear of denial or conditional prerequisites. The study findings draw attention to the importance of individualised treatment and are consistent with similar themes that characterise people with AN and their experience of treatment [ 24 , 30 – 32 ]. These themes emphasise the struggle between the provision of effective AN treatment approaches and structure and the need for autonomy and a treatment structure that can meet the needs of the individuals.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 77%

Factors impacting treatment and recovery in Anorexia Nervosa: qualitative findings from an online questionnaire

Fogarty

Ramjan

2016

J Eat Disord

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BackgroundAnorexia nervosa (AN) is characterised by restriction of energy intake, fear of gaining weight and severe disturbances in weight or shape. Recovery from AN is a complicated and often multifaceted experience that can take many years to achieve. Qualitative research has found that support, being understood, hope, desire for recovery, positive experiences in treatment, self-efficacy, motivation and relationships are important in recovery from AN. The experience of treatment for patients with an eating disorder is an important aspect of recovery with the potential to enhance recovery or hinder it. The aim of the questionnaire was to better understand factors impacting the care experiences during treatment and or recovery from self-reported Anorexia Nervosa (AN).MethodAn online questionnaire was developed and administered to past or current sufferers of Anorexia Nervosa, ≥18 years of age. Participants were recruited through eating disorder organisations both in Australia and the United Kingdom. The questionnaire was a mixture of quantitative and qualitative questions. The quantitative data was analysed using descriptive statistics and the qualitative data was analysed using conventional content analysis (CCA).ResultsOf those who responded, most currently experienced self-reported AN. The quantitative results identified that most participants had trust and confidence in their health care provider and felt listened to and supported yet on the subject of the suitability of treatment this had varied opinions. Being understood, hope (life after AN) and self-acceptance were considered the top three important factors in the treatment and recovery from Anorexia Nervosa. The qualitative results revealed the factors hindering or benefiting treatment and recovery, and individuals’ needs during the four phases of recovery.ConclusionFactors were identified that could either hinder or benefit treatment and recovery and these included whether treatment supported the individual to cope with change, whether the individual found the treatment to be appropriate for their personal needs and whether treatment addressed underlying factors. Individuals’ needs differed during the four phases of recovery. The findings of the study may help treatment providers address key factors involved in recovery at the right stage of treatment however by the nature of the qualitative methodology conclusions are putative and further definitive research is indicated.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 77%

Factors impacting treatment and recovery in Anorexia Nervosa: qualitative findings from an online questionnaire

Fogarty

Ramjan

2016

J Eat Disord

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“…Anthropologists have examined how some people with disordered eating are drawn towards the power of illness categories, transforming the diagnostic label into their own meaning-making project and often forming strong communities of belonging (both online and in treatment settings), thereby growing attached to their disorder through the meaningful social relationships it facilitates (Eli, 2014a;Lavis, 2011;Warin, 2010). Anthropological work has also traced linkages between the ambivalence that eating disorder inpatients express toward illness and recovery and the simultaneous attraction and apprehension they feel toward the patient community (Eli, 2014b). Thus, rather than position patients with eating disorders as isolated individuals suffering from an illness, anthropological research has delineated the altered relationships that eating disorders offer, suggesting that the bonds people form with their fellow patients constitute powerful forms of relatedness that may impact on treatment.…”

Section: Deciphering Cultural Logicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anthropological Perspectives on Eating Disorders: Deciphering Cultural Logics

Eli

Warin

2018

Transcult Psychiatry

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In the last three decades, anthropological analyses of eating disorders have peeled away layers of 'common sense' to reveal tacit and often contradictory forces that inhere in people's bodies, practices, and lives. From investigations of institutional practices to analyses of embodied experiences, anthropologists have developed insightful accounts of how local, shared worlds shape disordered eating, and of the grounding of disorder in social structures and relationships that tend to be obscured in clinical and popular interpretations. In this introductory essay, we offer a brief review of anthropological work on eating disorders, with particular emphasis on studies published in the last decade. Attending to person, structure, and bodily being-in-the-world, these anthropological studies reveal multiple cultural logics within which disordered eating practices are embedded. The deciphering of cultural logics forms the basis for this special issue, whose constituent papers interrogate recurring and ongoing eating disorders, with analyses that focus on relapse, ambivalence toward treatment, and the persistence of disordered eating practices. In their shared focus on long-term eating disorders, the papers offer anthropological responses to clinical questions about the low rates of treatment success. As such, the special issue conveys the potential for new productive collaborations between anthropology, policy, and clinical research and practice for the prevention of and effective intervention in eating disorders.

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“…This aligns with the work of other scholars who have also recently engaged with the practices, meanings and subjectivities of individuals with anorexia (cf. Eli, 2014;Gooldin, 2008;Warin, 2010).…”

Section: Food Porn and Pro-anorexia: Eating As Multiplicitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Food porn, pro-anorexia and the viscerality of virtual affect: Exploring eating in cyberspace

Lavis

2017

Geoforum

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a b s t r a c tBy engaging with 'pro-anorexia' and 'food porn' on the Internet, this paper explores eating in cyberspace. Reflecting on the ways in which virtual, but affective, consumption is central to both food porn and pro-anorexia websites, the paper asks what the act of eating 'triggers' and produces, connects and displaces. It traces how eating in, and through, cyberspace shapes the biological materialities of bodies whilst also collapsing neat distinctions between offline and online worlds. Virtual vectors of spectating, salivating and digesting are disembodied and yet corporeal. Eating is seen to take place beyond and among bodies and to be dissipated both spatially and temporally. As such, cyberspace is outside and other to lived corporeality, and yet also folded into and productive of the intimate geographies and embodied subjectivities of everyday lives. As eating takes myriad forms across the de-materialised viscerality of the Internet, it also emerges as central to the production and 'matter(ing)' of cyberspace itself; this is (an) eating space in which what is eaten, by whom and with what bodies, perpetually shifts. Thus, seeking to contribute to geographical scholarship on affect and food, this paper engages with eating as both the subject of enquiry and also as a productive pathway into an interrogation of cyberspace and its place within the affective productions of the everyday. It suggests that this is a key site in which to explore the intimate socialities, materialities and biopolitics of food.

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Between Difference and Belonging: Configuring Self and Others in Inpatient Treatment for Eating Disorders

Cited by 30 publications

References 31 publications

Factors impacting treatment and recovery in Anorexia Nervosa: qualitative findings from an online questionnaire

Factors impacting treatment and recovery in Anorexia Nervosa: qualitative findings from an online questionnaire

Anthropological Perspectives on Eating Disorders: Deciphering Cultural Logics

Food porn, pro-anorexia and the viscerality of virtual affect: Exploring eating in cyberspace

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