Mental (Super) Models
The greatest value of the press on this story, People 'have poor image of hands', is that this concept - well known in the eating disorder world - takes it out of the context of thinness.
I think we've misunderstood the body image troubles of eating disorders as psychological because WE share the same fears and loathings. When you think of it as with one's hands it is harder to do the whole skinny models/wanting to be invisible/objectification of our bodies trope.
When the public can see these problems from different angles it helps us support our kids and deal with clinicians and understand the information we receive. Here's the take-home: our sense of our bodies are not simply based on reality. The brain has all sorts of ways of interpreting reality and we are not machines with mindless sensors gathering data. Many things intervene - including social messages and values and personal experience - and the predispositions of the brain.
I think we've misunderstood the body image troubles of eating disorders as psychological because WE share the same fears and loathings. When you think of it as with one's hands it is harder to do the whole skinny models/wanting to be invisible/objectification of our bodies trope.
When the public can see these problems from different angles it helps us support our kids and deal with clinicians and understand the information we receive. Here's the take-home: our sense of our bodies are not simply based on reality. The brain has all sorts of ways of interpreting reality and we are not machines with mindless sensors gathering data. Many things intervene - including social messages and values and personal experience - and the predispositions of the brain.
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