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Psychiatry as social ordering: Anorexia nervosa, a paradigm

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  • Gremillion, Helen

Abstract

From a psychiatric perspective, anorexia nervosa (hereafter referred to as 'anorexia') is an enigmatic illness. This paper attempts to explain why this is so, describing anorexia as a western cultural phenomenon whose psychiatric explanations and treatments actually participate in the sociocultural processes that inform this syndrome. Anorexia reveals a form of contemporary control over the female body, and psychiatry, as a western discipline, institutionalizes a mind-over-body (objective) ideology that is part of this project. Various psychiatric theories of anorectic etiology and their corresponding methods of treatment are analyzed in this light, and a general framework for understanding the discipline of psychiatry as a mode of social control is offered.

Suggested Citation

  • Gremillion, Helen, 1992. "Psychiatry as social ordering: Anorexia nervosa, a paradigm," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 57-71, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:35:y:1992:i:1:p:57-71
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    Cited by:

    1. Musolino, Connie & Warin, Megan & Wade, Tracey & Gilchrist, Peter, 2015. "‘Healthy anorexia’: The complexity of care in disordered eating," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 18-25.
    2. Moulding, Nicole, 2006. "Disciplining the feminine: The reproduction of gender contradictions in the mental health care of women with eating disorders," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(4), pages 793-804, February.

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