Work

Women’s Constructions of Childhood Trauma and Anorexia Nervosa: a Qualitative Meta-Synthesis

Year: 2018

Type: article

Abstract: A meta-synthesis was conducted to explore women’s constructions of anorexia nervosa and childhood trauma. Following a systematic review of the literature, six studies were isolated and synthesized within a material-discursive-intrapsychic framework to produce five taxonomies: “objectified and controlled bodies,” “the abject body,” “embodied emotions and self-harm,” “medicalizing the body-as-object,” and “embodied meanings and new possibilities.” The women’s experience of anorexia, their bodies, and shifting subjectivities was a response to the materiality of childhood abuse. The women discursively constructed anorexia nervosa as a means of negotiating bodily distress associated with trauma and renegotiating their identities to produce a cohesive, embodied self. This meta-synthesis has implications for further research that elucidates how women make meaning from the transformations of their embodied subjectivities.

Source: Human Arenas

DOI: 10.1007/s42087-018-0029-3

Authors: Jennifer Malecki, Paul Rhodes, Jane Ussher

Institutions: The University of Sydney, Western Sydney University

Language: English

Topic: Eating Disorders and Behaviors

Subfield: Clinical Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $2,390