Famished: Eating Disorders and Failed Care in America

Rebecca J. Lester

Published by University of California Press 2019

Famished

Eating Disorders and Failed Care in America

Rebecca J. Lester

https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520972902

Overview
Contents

About this book

When Rebecca Lester was eleven years old—and again when she was eighteen—she almost died from anorexia nervosa. Now both a tenured professor in anthropology and a licensed social worker, she turns her ethnographic and clinical gaze to the world of eating disorders—their history, diagnosis, lived realities, treatment, and place in the American cultural imagination.

Famished, the culmination of over two decades of anthropological and clinical work, as well as a lifetime of lived experience, presents a profound rethinking of eating disorders and how to treat them. Through a mix of rich cultural analysis, detailed therapeutic accounts, and raw autobiographical reflections, Famished helps make sense of why people develop eating disorders, what the process of recovery is like, and why treatments so often fail. It’s also an unsparing condemnation of the tension between profit and care in American healthcare, demonstrating how a system set up to treat a disease may, in fact, perpetuate it. Fierce and vulnerable, critical and hopeful, Famished will forever change the way you understand eating disorders and the people who suffer with them.

Author information

LesterRebecca J.:

Rebecca J. Lester is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis and a licensed clinical social worker. She is the author of numerous academic articles and the award-winning book Jesus in Our Wombs.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Prologue Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	xv
SECTION ONE. Provocations
1. Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	3
Roller-Skating Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	30
2. Rethinking Eating Disorders Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	31
Little Debbie Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	62
3. Eating Disorders as Technologies of Presence Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	63
For the Ladies Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	85
SECTION TWO. Frameworks
4. Identifying the Problem: When Is an Eating Disorder (Not) an Eating Disorder? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	87
Spinning Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	109
5. A Hell That Saves You: Cedar Grove’s Staff and Programs Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	110
Lettuce Sandwich Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	142
6. Fixing Time: Chronicity, Recovery, and Trajectories of Care at Cedar Grove Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	143
Liquidated Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	175
SECTION THREE. Dynamics
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	177
7. Loosening the Ties That Bind: Unmooring Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	183
Mortifications Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	214
8. Me, Myself, and Ed: Recalibrating Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	215
Calculated Risks Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	242
9. “Fat” Is Not a Feeling: Developing New Ways of Presencing Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	243
Looking for the Exit Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	274
SECTION FOUR. Recursions
10. Running on Empty: Relationships of Care in a Culture of Deprivation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	275
Breaking Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	303
11. Capitalizing on Care: Precarity, Vulnerability, and Failed Subjects Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	305
Spark Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	321
12. Conclusions: Where Do We Go from Here? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	322
Afterword Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	331
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	337
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	339
Works Cited Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	357
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	371