Eating Disorders - fieldi

7
Jodie’s Story
debra bader
In his essay, “Grimm’s Greatest Tale,” Stephen Jay Gould (1991)
said, “We must never doubt the power of names as Rumpelstiltskin
learned to his sorrow.” So it is with anorexia nervosa and bulimia. In
the past brief time span leading up to this paper, I have had occasion
to address audiences of schoolteachers, schoolchildren, parents,
alcoholism counselors, and therapists who all seem inclined to
define these symptoms as a disease entity and to launch a battle
against it. I fear becoming a spinner of the tale by citing data that are
true and factual without looking at how an individual uses the world
around her. For example, the cultural pressure for thinness colludes
with women who are eating disordered. True, but that offers an
incomplete explanation. Certainly our culture offers a language that
lends itself to individual creativity. I am thinking of the “bulimiclike”
headline in the New York Times review of the film Regarding
Henry—“The Treasures of the 80’s Turn to Junk in the 90’s.” The