Beyond Anorexia: Narrative, Spirituality and Recovery by Garrett, Catherine (1998) Paperback

by Catherine Garrett

Beyond Anorexia is a sociological exploration of how people recover from what medicine labels as "eating disorders," and the first book to focus exclusively on recovery. Beginning with her own personal story, and drawing on conversations with over thirty other former sufferers, Catherine Garrett demonstrates the fundamental importance of narrative to social theory and to healing. Her central claim is that recovery is a "spiritual" experience (not necessarily a religious one), reconnecting the self with body, nature and society. As such it is the key to fully understanding anorexia.

Genres: Nonfiction, Psychology, Mental Illness

Paperback

First published October 13, 1998

Reviews

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of those books that had me pencilling excited annotations in the margins, agreeing with the authors insights. I may have found it heavy-going at times but I really think Catherine Garrett ‘gets it’. OK, it is perhaps a strange book, written by an academic and ex-anorexic, examining recovery and the need for narrative and spirituality (however loosely defined). Extrapolated from her own experience, interviews with 34 recovering ED sufferers, sociological and anthropoloical approaches. But it’s refreshing to read a book focusing on recovery and the meanings that come from getting well, not the meanings we can draw from sickness.
You don't have to have a background in anthropology or sociology to get this book, and it's more than just a bunch of case studies.
Personally I've had years of therapy to find out exactly what's wrong with me but nowhere near enough to teach me how to live normally and this book addresses that. As such I found it minimally triggering and mostly helpful.