Eat your heart out : a narrative approach to understanding anorexia nervosa in nine adult women.
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Abstract
This study attempted to explore anorexia nervosa (AN) narratively using the writing
and reading of self-reflexive stories of 9 adult women participants independently
diagnosed with AN. The literature was organised using Zubin and Steinhauer’s (1981)
vulnerability model which argues for an integrative approach when explaining
psychological disorders. Using a combination of three thematic analysis models the
researcher examined emergent themes from participants’ stories and questionnaires.
Themes seemed to correspond with Zubin and Steinhauer’s (1981) vulnerability model
with the exception of maintaining and moderating factors which corresponded with
the Maudsley model (Treasure, Williams & Schmidt, 2009).
Themes were categorised under 3 primary headings: Sources of vulnerability,
maintaining factors and moderating factors: Sources of vulnerability: Participants’
personalities seemed to be described as characterised by features of emotionality,
obsessionality and impulsivity. In addition, these personality features were described
as precipitating an increased capacity to magnify negative experiences in childhood
and adolescence including family difficulties, social deficits, a tendency to make
unfavourable social comparisons and internalisation of thinness ideals. Maintaining
factors: Participants’ AN was described as maintained through the proposed AN triad
in which repeatedly striving to attain increasing levels of perfection was associated
with decreasing goal weights. This pursuit was continually met with failure due to the
inherent unattainability of the task, resulting in employment of compensation
strategies. Moderating factors: Participants described potential moderating factors as
being related to therapeutic approaches which focused on warmth, connectedness and
understanding. Completion of narrative tasks in the study was described as beneficial
by fostering a sense of normalisation, catharsis and separating the person from the
problem. However, participants also described possible harm through a heightened
sense of comparison and failure potentially activated by completing the narrative tasks
in this study.
Description
Ph. D. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg 2015.
Keywords
Anorexia nervosa., Eating disorders in women., Theses -- Psychology.