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“Knowing one's self” anorexic: Implications for therapeutic practice
Author(s) -
Surgenor Lois J.,
Plumridge Elizabeth W.,
Horn Jacqueline
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
international journal of eating disorders
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.785
H-Index - 138
eISSN - 1098-108X
pISSN - 0276-3478
DOI - 10.1002/eat.10117
Subject(s) - anorexia nervosa , construct (python library) , psychology , psychotherapist , clinical practice , self , eating disorders , developmental psychology , psychoanalysis , social psychology , clinical psychology , medicine , computer science , programming language , family medicine
Objective Recent postmodernist studies of anorexia nervosa (AN) challenge current clinical understandings and therapies by illuminating not what AN is but how what it is known to be by clinicians helps construct the disorder and therapy for it. This study points to the equal if not greater importance of how patients know AN. Methods Using a deconstructive approach, the discourses of a group of women diagnosed with severe AN were analyzed to reveal radically different versions of “knowing one's self” anorexic. Results These versions of “self” have strategically different implications for, and meanings of, any therapeutic endeavour. Discussion Postmodernist approaches point to the need for social reconstruction of lay and community understandings of AN. They also have implications at the level of individual therapy, and could be deployed with patients to establish individual but authentic bases for therapy. © 2002 by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Eat Disord 33: 22–32, 2003.