Eating Disorders, Female Psychology, and the Self

I feel completely empty. I know not what is at my core that issues my actions. I am only aware of the multiple people that continually dictate conflicting thoughts into my head. I want to pull out my heart and decipher its message so that I can see myself in an honest light. When I look in the mirror I see a shadow of a person who no longer exists. For I have no identity, unless it can be found in my illness. But how do I cast off that identity, when I have lost sight of any other? I could abandon it if I knew what would replace it.

These words convey some of the pain and the disturbance in the sense of self reported by a 23-year-old woman diagnosed with anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. We believe they poignantly reflect psychological disturbances which may be common in women with eating disorders, namely disturbances in the sense of self. Psychological explanations for eating disorders have often neglected to take into account how the subjective experience of affected individuals may be influenced by gender. We believe that gender-specific aspects of development and psychology are essential to understanding eating disorders among women. Recent research regarding female psychology and development sheds new light on this subject. Further, recent theoretical contributions regarding the psychology of self provides a useful perspective from which to view both female psychology (Spieler, 1986) and the psychological disturbances which may be associated with eating disorders (Geist, 1989; Goodsitt, 1983, 1985).