The eating disorder recovery assemblage: Collectively generating possibilities for eating disorder recovery

Abstract

In this paper, we explore the affective-discursive-material aspects of the supportive eating disorder recovery assemblage. We approach recovery as an “assemblage” to facilitate an understanding of how human (people, systems of care, etc.) and nonhuman (affect, discourses, etc.) forces generate possibilities or impossibilities for recovery. Moving away from framings of recovery as an individual achievement, we consider the relationality and dynamism of eating disorder recovery in interviews with 20 people in recovery and 14 supporters of people in recovery. We draw from experiential accounts to theorize a supportive eating disorder recovery assemblage in relation to trust and love mobilized in interactions and relationships. This supportive eating disorder recovery assemblage can scaffold new understandings of recoveries as multiple and co-produced. Supportive eating disorder recovery assemblages generate improvisational spaces, albeit loosely contained and bounded, for different pathways to and manifestations of “recoveries”. This work builds on a body of feminist scholarship on eating disorders/disordered eating that takes up gendered relationships of power in treatment settings, extending toward and analysing material, affective, embodied, and potentially affirming dimensions of care and emotion in participants’ lives.

An open invitation to productive conversations about feminism and the spectrum of eating disorders (part 1): basic principles of feminist approaches

“…Still others simultaneously retain and critique diagnostic labels in their writing. Retention is done for varied—and not always articulated—reasons, ranging from aiming to speak authoritatively within spaces where feminist work is not always heard (e.g., [ 70 – 72 ]), to acknowledging the utility of the power that labels hold in terms of facilitating access to treatment in the twenty-first century, to working from a feminist paradigm that is not rooted in deconstruction and thus is perceived as more pragmatic. Note that within a feminist approach the multidimensional relationships between being told what you “have” (e.g., bulimia nervosa), constructing your identity, confronting stigma, and developing hope become important issues for both recovery and research.…”

An open invitation to productive conversations about feminism and the spectrum of eating disorders (part 2): Potential contributions to the science of diagnosis, treatment, and prevention

“…A critical feminist approach invites us to acknowledge and honour diversity (both within and across the various categories of eating disorder) as we consider how these articulations will always draw in part on the cultural repertoires people use to understand and articulate themselves. Moreover, the research encounters in which these articulations are generated and shared will themselves be laden with power [ 21 , 53 , 54 ]. It is this construction of research that we contend with in the next section.…”

“…Critical feminist work on eating recoveries invites us to consider, for example, the therapeutic and other relational networks that enable recovery to happen [ 53 ]. Given that recovery often involves going “against the grain” of cultural dictates around body size, eating, and self-control [ 31 , 54 , 70 ], we must look at the meanings of and practices around recoveries in context, including investigating the relational and affective ties between people in recovery and the people who support them [ 53 ].…”

“…Critical feminist work on eating recoveries invites us to consider, for example, the therapeutic and other relational networks that enable recovery to happen [ 53 ]. Given that recovery often involves going “against the grain” of cultural dictates around body size, eating, and self-control [ 31 , 54 , 70 ], we must look at the meanings of and practices around recoveries in context, including investigating the relational and affective ties between people in recovery and the people who support them [ 53 ]. By emphasizing that useful knowledge about eating disorders and recovery requires an understanding of people’s identities, subjectivities, and relationships to the world around them, feminist work emphasizes the value of investigating why some people might not recover, or at least not in “expected ways” [ 70 , 71 ].…”

Mother blaming and anorexia: How ideological state apparatuses have informed my perception of my mother's role in the formation of my eating disorder

“…This “family of approaches” aims to help women recognize the importance of their own experiences and perceptions of EDs. Autoethnographic and ethnographic investigations into the role of EDs in women's personal biographies accord with the feminist perspective of EDs; they help women who have struggled with EDs to reflect on their past and present, and even facilitate the creation of a clearer picture of their future lives (Holmes, 2016a; LaMarre & Rice, 2021; Moola & Norman, 2017; Venturo-Conerly et al, 2020). At the same time, it is crucial to note that anorexia is one of many EDs that are approached by feminist scholars, and other ones such as bulimia, compulsive overeating or orthorexia also require attention from autoethnographers.…”