Disrupted embodiment: empirically assessing phenomenological accounts of anorexia nervosa

Recent philosophical reflection on eating disorders has taken a phenomenological turn. These approaches have focused on the experiences of those with eating disorders, many taking as their focus bodily experience In this paper, after a brief overview of Lucy Osler’s phenomenological account of disrupted embodiment, we describe two studies that provide empirical support for phenomenological approaches to AN broadly, and Osler’s account more specifically. Participants included 220 undergraduate women as well as 138 women who self-identified as currently experiencing AN. Participants completed cross-sectional online questionnaires related to their disrupted embodiment, body dissatisfaction, drive for thinness, bulimic behaviors, eating disorder symptomatology, dieting behaviors, and impairment due to eating disorders. Results of hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated that, with one exception, the Disrupted Embodiment Scale (DES) total score and its three subscales explained variance in eating disorder symptomatology, bulimia behaviors, and eating disorder-related impairment above and beyond body dissatisfaction and drive for thinness. Furthermore, results of four ANCOVAs indicated women who self-identify as experiencing AN reported higher levels of feeling this type of disrupted embodiment, their bodies as a hardship, as a threat, and as separate from their “selves” compared to undergraduate women, controlling for age and BMI. Finally, bifactor analyses in addition to the consistency of the subscale-specific results indicate that the DES may be best conceptualized as a unidimensional scale. Overall, results provide empirical support for phenomenological approaches to understanding anorexia, including Osler’s specific account. The current paper presents a study aimed at empirically testing Lucy Osler’s philosophical ideas about the character of disrupted embodiment in Anorexia Nervosa using the Disrupted Embodiment Scale (DES). The DES measures peoples’ degree of disrupted embodiment and has three subscales: (1) Body as Hardship, (2) Body as Threat, and (3) Body as Separate from Self. Results indicated that women with Anorexia Nervosa have higher levels of disrupted experiences of embodiment, specifically that they view their bodies as more of a hardship, more of a threat, and as more separate from their “selves” than women who do not have Anorexia Nervosa. Additionally, results indicate that the DES is significantly related to eating disorder symptoms and impairment. Finally, results indicate that the DES may be best conceptualized as a unidimensional scale.