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people in the room appeared to be able to empathize with Sally’s deliberations,
nodding as she speaks, while listening intently.
For both Emma and Sally, the decision to pursue and continue formal treatment is incredibly
consuming. Even the formal elements of participants’ recoveries require close monitoring and
substantial amounts of time and energy. Such intense self-monitoring further undermines
participants newly found self-trust and assertiveness.
Conclusion
The aim of this study was to explore the hypothesis that eating disorder support groups
deliver their benefits through encouraging feminist identity development. Support groups do
support feminist change, but nonetheless fail to encourage feminist identity development.
Participants not only develop a fortified sense of self but also learn to employ the eating disorder
in challenging hierarchal relationships and affirming the importance of emotion, specifically
anger. However, participants do not collectively identify on the basis of their gender. Rather,
participants collectively identify on the basis of a shared disorder. As a result, the eating
disorder legitimates the change that participants pursue. Consequently, the eating disorder
becomes the primary component of participants’ identities. Frame extension and disease
extension allow participants to continue to identify as eating disordered even after having ceased
eating disorder behaviors and established a stable, healthy weight.
The groups’ failure to encourage feminist identity development is not a problem in its
own right. After all, the groups are not designed for this task but rather that of leading eating
disorder sufferers to recovery. Therein lies the true cause for concern. Support groups’ failure to
locate an alternative basis for change effectively creates a disincentive for recovery. Moreover,
participants’ subsequent adoption of an eating disordered identity is further cause for alarm.
Some might argue otherwise, but if we take seriously the possibility of illness as narrative
(Hydén 1997), participants’ identification as eating disordered is extremely problematic. Even
those participants in stable physical health are consequently subject to mental behaviors and
thought patterns that seriously limit their agency and quality of life. Moreover, continued
identification as eating disordered results in continued stigma. For sufferers of eating disorders,
the stigma is particularly harsh given that many view eating disorders as a self-imposed illness
(Rich 2006).
Convention