RT Article
T1 Isn't Our Body the Only Thing We Have? Catherine of Siena, Medieval Fasting and (Post) Modern Anorexia Nervosa
JF Medieval mystical theology
VO 24
IS 1
SP 6
OP 22
A1 Babb, Julia Bebbington
LA English
PB Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group
YR 2015
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1666533602
AB Medieval fasting inspired fascination and fear, was used by its (mainly female) practitioners to authenticate mystical experience, and was increasingly controlled by the (male) clerical hierarchy of the Catholic Church of the time. Modern anorexia nervosa inspires a similar range of responses and, in the personhood of those whose eating is disordered in this way, reflects similar links between the formation of gendered subjectivity and the social context in which the individual is located. This paper proposes the concept of spirit-centred personhood, developed from the work of Luce Irigaray and Grace Jantzen, as a way of understanding the meaning that is signified by fasting and disordered eating, and ultimately a spiritual source of healing for the individual that can be drawn upon by those with eating disorders and the healthcare practitioners who seek to order their eating through their work with them.
K1 Catherine of Siena
K1 Grace Jantzen
K1 Luce Irigaray
K1 Anorexia Nervosa
K1 Gender
K1 Immanence
K1 medieval fasting
K1 Society
K1 spirit-centred personhood
K1 Subjectivity
K1 symbolic
K1 Transcendence
DO 10.1179/2046572615Z.00000000029