Death and anorexia nervosa: A question from the sidelines

Abstract

In this article, I reflect on the social science contribution to understandings of anorexia nervosa. The context is set with a brief overview of my own interest in the topic, of how the phenomenon has been conceptualised as a topic of legitimate social science interest and of how the social sciences have broadened conceptualisations of anorexia nervosa. I then consider the absent presence of death in social science accounts of anorexia nervosa. In the social science literature, claims to high mortality rates feature routinely in how social scientists frame the phenomenon for study, but these data are rarely a focus of investigation in their own right. The apparent acceptance of the mortality data in social science accounts is problematic, because mortality data can be potentially misleading. With the attempts of some social scientists to give voice to those affected by anorexia nervosa, it seems particularly important to ensure that our framing of the phenomenon is as accurate as possible, and that the statistics used to describe the phenomenon are used with critical evaluation rather than straightforward acceptance. As a collective enterprise, the social sciences have provided a significant and dynamic challenge to the ways in which anorexia nervosa has been conceptualised in medical discourses, emphasising the impact of social structures on individual experiences. However, there remain areas where further interrogation may be beneficial in attempting to evaluate dominant conceptualisations of anorexia nervosa as always already serious and extreme.