Anorexia functions as a protective strategy to preserve the self.
Evidence
It is a way of shrinking back, of reserving, preserving the self, fighting free of sexual and emotional entanglements. It says, like Christ, noli me tangere. Touch me not and take yourself off. For a year or two, it may be a valid strategy; to be greensick, to be out of the game; to die just a little; to nourish the inner being while starving the outer being; to buy time. — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 218
It is a way of shrinking back, of reserving, preserving the self, fighting free of sexual and emotional entanglements. It says, like Christ, noli me tangere. Touch me not and take yourself off. For a year or two, it may be a valid strategy; to be greensick, to be out of the game; to die just a little; to nourish the inner being while starving the outer being; to buy time. Most anorexics do recover, after all. Anorexia can be an accommodation, a strategy for survival. — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 218
Categorization
- XREF: XREF: relates to asceticism and mental health framing — connects to: Survivors of abuse often develop survival tactics to cope. — Dave Pelzer, A Child Called ‘It’, 95; Survivors persist through demanding situations via strategies like persistence, self-care, sense of control, and engagement in recreational or physical activities. — Going Forward Like a Grandmother in the Snow: Personal Survival Strategies, Motherhood, and Nature as Resources for Mothers Who Have Experienced Intimate Partner Violence
- SEED: A character-portrayal method: write a behavior as an accommodation or a strategy rather than a defect, to grant interiority to someone acting self-destructively.
- corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 218
Broader Connections
- Survivors of abuse often develop survival tactics to cope.
#exemplifies(0.85) — Dave Pelzer, A Child Called ‘It’, 95