Acknowledgements

PART I: THE DISEASE: AN ACTIVITY DISORDER

Chapter 1. The Person: Working with Interviews
Chapter 2. Medicine: Reworking Cartesian Knowledge
Chapter 3. The Stories: Respecting Diversity
Chapter 4. Bioculturalism: Seeing Holistically and Historically
Chapter 5. Bodily Bent: The Individual’s Constitution
Chapter 6. The Activity: How Ascetic Doing Takes Over
Chapter 7. The Core: Elementary Anorexia

PART II: THE LIFECYCLE: A DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDER

Chapter 8. Youth: How Adolescence Invites Anorexia
Chapter 9. Coming of Age: Meeting an Imagined Real World

PART III: MODERN TRADITIONS: CULTURAL PATHS INTO ANOREXIA

Chapter 10. Virtuous Eating: A Modern Morality
Chapter 11. The Conflicted Body: Sympathy and Control as Competing Virtues
Chapter 12. The Attractive Person: A Modern Appearance Ethic

PART IV: RECOVERY: FINDING BALANCE

Chapter 13. Getting Out: Undoing Anorexia
Chapter 14. Staying Out: Redoing Life

Epilogue

References

From Virtue to Vice

Negotiating Anorexia

Richard A. O' Connor and Penny van Esterik

252 pages, bibliog., index

ISBN 978-1-78238-455-7 Hb Published (March 2015)

eISBN 978-1-78238-456-4 eBook

Details

"I found this to be a top-notch scholarly work written in a way that will be accessible for diverse audiences including students, professional clinicians, academics, and the interested lay public." · Janet Dixon Keller, University of Illinois

The recovered possess the key to overcoming anorexia. Although individual sufferers do not know how the affliction takes hold, piecing their stories together reveals two accidental afflictions. One is that activity disorders—dieting, exercising, healthy eating—start as virtuous practices, but become addictive obsessions. The other affliction is a developmental disorder, which also starts with the virtuous—those eager for challenge and change. But these overachievers who seek self-improvement get a distorted life instead. Knowing anorexia from inside, the recovered offer two watchwords on helping those who suffer. One is "negotiate," to encourage compromise, which can aid recovery where coercion fails. The other is "balance," for the ill to pursue mind-with-body activities to defuse mind-over-body battles.

Richard A. O'Connor is Biehl Professor of International Studies and Anthropology at The University of the South. He has held postdoctoral awards nationally (Fulbright, SSRC-ACLS, NEH) and abroad (Kyoto University and Institute of Southeast Asian Studies).

Penny Van Esterik is a retired Professor of Anthropology from York University where she taught nutritional anthropology, advocacy anthropology and feminist theory. Past books include Beyond the Breast-Bottle Controversy, Materializing Thailand, and Food and Culture: A Reader (edited with Carole Counihan).

Series: Volume 4, Food, Nutrition, and Culture

Subject: Medical Anthropology Food & Nutrition

Area: North America

LC: RC552.A5 O26 2015

BISAC: SOC057000 SOCIAL SCIENCE/Disease & Health Issues; SOC002010 SOCIAL SCIENCE/Anthropology/Cultural & Social

BIC: PSXM Medical anthropology; JFFH Illness & addiction: social aspects

berghahn New York · Oxford

Contents

From Virtue to Vice

Negotiating Anorexia

Richard A. O' Connor and Penny van Esterik

Series: Volume 4, Food, Nutrition, and Culture

Subject: Medical Anthropology Food & Nutrition

Area: North America

Home -> Title

Contents

From Virtue to Vice

Negotiating Anorexia

Richard A. O' Connor and Penny van Esterik

Series: Volume 4, Food, Nutrition, and Culture

Subject: Medical Anthropology Food & Nutrition

Area: North America