"effort after meaning"

In the 1930s, a psychologist named Bartlett coined the term "effort after meaning." It describes the phenomenon of people making sense of something retrospectively.

Connecting dots not meant to make a line.

We do this a lot with eating disorders. In an earlier era we found meaning in starvation as a sign of piety. More recently we looked to oral impregnation fears, powerlessness, and media objectification of women. Depending on your background you might see in eating disordered behavior a sign of a disconnect with G-d, the pathological modern family unit, of identity crisis, of the unrealistic pressures and expectations of modern life.

Presently, the fashionable effort after meaning concludes that EDs are the far end of a quest for thinness. This saddens me deeply. Yes, it seems at first to be obvious and irrefutable, but so did refrigerator mothers and choleric humors. If you observe an eating disorder up close you realize it has nothing to do with thinness. In fact, anorexics and bulimics are so disconnected from their true body composition they may be the only ones left in modern society who AREN'T really on a quest for thinness. They've either long since passed that goal or are blind to it.

It is up to us, and the rest of society, to resist using eating disorders as a metaphor for the ills of society. Our conclusions matter.

Comments

  1. Very interesting post, Laura. I was glad to look at the research. In fact I wrote a whole blog post myself on this topic this evening. It's something I've been thinking about for a while now.

    Good food for thought!

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  2. I had a really hard time reading that. (not in the sense of previous issues in reading your blog ;) ..)

    but .. in that ... my assumption that, since my weight is not underweight ... and I had had this disoder for so long ... it could not kill me.

    Two phrases stuck out ...

    "if you observe an eating disorder up close you realize it has nothing to do with thinness."

    I've lost track of the times I've told my team it has nothing to do with weight (although ... well ... you know the story)

    and ...


    In fact, anorexics and bulimics are so disconnected from their true body composition ....."

    the sentence goes on ... about underweight eating disordered patients, but it is just as true for those older patients, who, after years of yoyoing and destroying the metabolism, are no longer underweight ... however ... the number isn't the issue anymore ...it's about not sticking that fork of food in the mouth!


    Or controlling, percieving to control, what we think we can control.

    When I started to read your blog a month ago or two ago, so much of it angered me, very little of it made sense.
    The 'refeeding' especially ...
    given the fact that I am *NOT* underweight, I had proof it was not the issue ...
    (my lab work showing malnutrition not with standing, my caloric intake at less than 500 calories ... and my body deciding to go on a strike ...none of that mattered)
    2 months in a row of malnutriative lab work, severe edema caused by protien deficiency, kidney's starting to give out ...

    and a bit of a scare put into me ...um, maybe my weight wasn't the issue but the calories put into me was ...

    and I started to refeed ... as you know, I didn't react so well

    and you're starting to make sense.

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  3. Dreaming,

    I am so deeply moved by what you are saying. I think there is still much to learn about both the physiological and the cognitive aspects of this illness - you are in the special position of being able to see these issues from both sides of the curtain. I can only look from outside, as I have with my daughter.

    I can tell you this, my daughter's thoughts, behaviors, and relationships changed a lot as her body healed from malnutrition - even a little bit of malnutrition like missing a snack for a while could send her spinning.

    She also saw ME differently from both sides of the curtain. I still annoy her, btw, and make her mad (!) but we seem to speak the same language now.

    I will be very curious, and thankful, to hear your insights as you progress. I'm eager to learn too!

    Thank you, very much, for telling me that.

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  4. I really enjoy reading your blog - your voice is a very important one that is definitely needed...

    One question: You said, "Presently, the fashionable effort after meaning concludes that EDs are the far end of a quest for thinness... it has nothing to do with thinness."

    I understand your concern, because i do see the perspective you represent, however, i also wonder just how much our (our=western society) quest for "perfection" (through thinness since it is currently the standard of beauty) plays a role.

    I think in general, "thinness" isn't exactly the issue, it's the control, perfectionism, etc, but a quest for thinness can definitely be a catalyst - at least it was for me. The idea that one can attain that impossible standard of beauty and can have "control" over her/his own body. It may start with thinness, although ultimately and generally it has nothing to do with it.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I really enjoy reading your blog - your voice is a very important one that is definitely needed...

    One question: You said, "Presently, the fashionable effort after meaning concludes that EDs are the far end of a quest for thinness... it has nothing to do with thinness."

    I understand your concern, because i do see the perspective you represent, however, i also wonder just how much our (our=western society) quest for "perfection" (through thinness since it is currently the standard of beauty) plays a role.

    I think in general, "thinness" isn't exactly the issue, it's the control, perfectionism, etc, but a quest for thinness can definitely be a catalyst - at least it was for me. The idea that one can attain that impossible standard of beauty and can have "control" over her/his own body. It may start with thinness, although ultimately and generally it has nothing to do with it.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Feministgal, this is such a good question, and one we all need to explore, I think.

    Here's how I see it: our thin-insane culture makes ALL of us nuts. It hurts ALL of us and we all have a responsibility to see that and fight back at it.

    How it relates to eating disorders is that when certain people eat restrictively their brains go berserk - and rightly so: they're starving.

    What if, for argument's sake, dieting caused an itchy rash instead of mental symptoms (obsession with avoiding food, distorted body image, social withdrawal, etc.).

    Would we see the itchy rash as a form of control, as a protest against society, a desire to be itchy? No, we'd see it as a symptom that most people wouldn't want. Because the mental symptoms cause weight loss - and the rest of us are weight-obsessed - eating disorders are misunderstood.

    In other words, it is OUR craziness that makes EDs seem sane - making patients unsafe. That is why we have to fight the dieting culture to fight EDs.

    But let's fight it for our own sake as well - it's toxic!

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  7. Do ED's occur more or less frequently in war zones? I.E. are the issues attenuated by more immediate dangers? I've heard of research that suggests there's less mental illness in war time. What about in societies living below the poverty line?

    ReplyDelete

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