The Thin Woman: Feminism, Post-structuralism and the Social Psychology of Anorexia Nervosa

by Helen Malson

Overview

The Thin Woman provides an in-depth discussion of anorexia nervosa from a feminist social psychological standpoint. Medicine, psychiatry and psychology have all presented us with particular ways of understanding eating disorders, yet the notion of 'anorexia' as a medical condition limits our understanding of anorexia and the extent to which we can explore it as a socially, discursively produced problem.
Based on original research using historical and contemporary literature on anorexia nervosa, and a series of interviews with women diagnosed as anorexic, The Thin Woman offers new insights into the problem. It will prove useful both to those with an interest in eating disorders and gender, and to those interested in the new developments in feminist post-structuralist theory and discourse analytic research in psychology.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415163330
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	11/13/1997
Series:	Women and Psychology
Pages:	252
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Helen Malson is an Associate Professor in Social Psychology and a supervisor and tutor on the Graduate Diploma in Psychology Advanced program at Monash University, Australia. She is a former Consulting Editor of Feminism & Psychology, a Past Chair of the Psychology of Women and Equalities Section of the British Psychological Society and, until 2022 when she moved from the UK to Western Australia, a Co-Director of the Bristol Eating Disorders Health Integration Team.

Table of Contents

Part I Towards a Feminist Post-Structuralist Perspective 1 Theorizing Women: Discoursing Gender, Subjectivity and Embodiment 2 Discourse, Feminism, Research and the Production of Truth Part II Instituting the Thin Woman: The Discursive Productions of ‘Anorexia Nervosa’ 3 A Genealogy of ‘Anorexia Nervosa’ 4 Discoursing Anorexias in the Late Twentieth Century Part III Women’s Talk? Productions of the Anorexic Body in Popular Discourse 5 The Thin/Anorexic Body and the Discursive Production of Gender 6 Subjectivity, Embodiment and Gender in a Discourse of Cartesian Dualism 7 Anorexia and the Discursive Production of the Self 8 Discursive Self-Production and Self-Destruction

Editorial Reviews

Helen Malson offers a fascinating, well-researched feminist perspective on anorexia nervosa Our culture's discourses on gender, subjectivity and embodiment are seen as deeply and perniciously damaging to women. Malson argues consistently against pathologizing the individual and for a social perspective which acknowledges powerful forces acting within and beyond an individual. - Lynda Randall, European Eating Disorders Review 1998

A special kind of intelligence seeps from its pages ... Read this book and grasp the strengths and weaknesses of social science when it addresses the human condition and individual existence. It has appeal and challenges for all of us: medical practitioners interested in the molecule, as well as sociologists and sufferers seeking a reassuring rationalisation of the psychosocial pathology contributing to their condition. - The Lancet

The Thin Woman represents a useful, inspirational, theoretical and methodical resource for anyone interested in the issues of 'anorexia nervosa' and, indeed, anyone who is concerned to question the status and effects of our current knowledge about the social world. - Amanda le Couteur, University of Adelaide

admirably clear and concise - Griffin, 1999, Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 9, 477-8

carefully crafted book ... a skilful integration of theory and research ... [Malson] presents a unique theoretical perspective that has many implications for research and future directions in the field. - Chavous, 2000, Sex Roles, 42 (5/6) 463-5

From the Publisher