Biomaterial Database

Shape-shifting discourses of anorexia nervosa: reconstituting psychopathology. 2003

Pamela K Hardin

College of Nursing, University of Utah, 10 South 2000 East, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. Pamela.hardin@nurs.utah.edu

This article explores how the circuitous relationship between individuals, the media, and discursive systems replicate and reinforce the act of self-starvation in young women. Using a feminist poststructuralist methodology, the focus of this article is on how discourses and institutional practices operate to position young women who take up the subject position of wanting to be diagnosed as anorexic. Utilizing data from online accounts and individual interviews, I attend to the ways in which young women are institutionally positioned as "anorexics" and the effects that those positions have on their behaviors, in addition to reinforcing institutional practices that construct anorexia nervosa. Questions addressed through this inquiry are: How do institutional practices create and continue to constitute "anorexia nervosa"? How do discourses operate to position young women such that they are either included and/or excluded into the category of "anorexia nervosa"? What are the effects and consequences that emanate from these positionings?

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D008402	Mass Media	Instruments or technological means of communication that reach large numbers of people with a common message: press, radio, television, etc.	Broadcast Media,Folk Media,Printed Media,Media, Broadcast,Media, Folk,Media, Mass,Media, Printed
D009042	Motivation	Those factors which cause an organism to behave or act in either a goal-seeking or satisfying manner. They may be influenced by physiological drives or by external stimuli.	Incentives,Disincentives,Expectations,Disincentive,Expectation,Incentive,Motivations
D011599	Psychopathology	The study of significant causes and processes in the development of mental illness.
D011795	Surveys and Questionnaires	Collections of data obtained from voluntary subjects. The information usually takes the form of answers to questions, or suggestions.	Community Survey,Nonrespondent,Questionnaire,Questionnaires,Respondent,Survey,Survey Method,Survey Methods,Surveys,Baseline Survey,Community Surveys,Methodology, Survey,Nonrespondents,Questionnaire Design,Randomized Response Technique,Repeated Rounds of Survey,Respondents,Survey Methodology,Baseline Surveys,Design, Questionnaire,Designs, Questionnaire,Methods, Survey,Questionnaire Designs,Questionnaires and Surveys,Randomized Response Techniques,Response Technique, Randomized,Response Techniques, Randomized,Survey, Baseline,Survey, Community,Surveys, Baseline,Surveys, Community,Techniques, Randomized Response
D001828	Body Image	Individuals' concept of their own bodies.	Body Identity,Body Representation,Body Schema,Body Images,Body Representations,Body Schemas,Identity, Body,Image, Body,Representation, Body,Schema, Body
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000856	Anorexia Nervosa	An eating disorder that is characterized by the lack or loss of APPETITE, known as ANOREXIA. Other features include excess fear of becoming OVERWEIGHT; BODY IMAGE disturbance; significant WEIGHT LOSS; refusal to maintain minimal normal weight; and AMENORRHEA. This disorder occurs most frequently in adolescent females. (APA, Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms, 1994)	Anorexia Nervosas,Nervosa, Anorexia,Nervosas, Anorexia
D001291	Attitude of Health Personnel	Attitudes of personnel toward their patients, other professionals, toward the medical care system, etc.	Staff Attitude,Attitude, Staff,Attitudes, Staff,Health Personnel Attitude,Health Personnel Attitudes,Staff Attitudes
D001294	Attitude to Health	Public attitudes toward health, disease, and the medical care system.	Health Attitude,Attitude, Health,Attitudes, Health,Health Attitudes,Health, Attitude to
D012307	Risk Factors	An aspect of personal behavior or lifestyle, environmental exposure, inborn or inherited characteristic, which, based on epidemiological evidence, is known to be associated with a health-related condition considered important to prevent.	Health Correlates,Risk Factor Scores,Risk Scores,Social Risk Factors,Population at Risk,Populations at Risk,Correlates, Health,Factor, Risk,Factor, Social Risk,Factors, Social Risk,Risk Factor,Risk Factor Score,Risk Factor, Social,Risk Factors, Social,Risk Score,Score, Risk,Score, Risk Factor,Social Risk Factor