Abstract
Interpretive approaches to the study of eating disorders are scarce. Narrative analysis provides an attractive means to address this shortfall and is applied to the life story of Beth, a former elite athlete with experience of anorexia nervosa and, as she revealed, sexual abuse. Six unstructured life history interviews took place yielding more than 9 hours of interview data. Throughout our conversations, Beth constructed multiple, fragile, and sometimes contrasting narrative coherences indicative of a fragmented and uncertain understanding of her life. It is argued that how Beth makes sense of her trauma is consequential for her future experiences.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 293-318 |
Number of pages | 26 |
Journal | Journal of Loss and Trauma |
Volume | 17 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Jul 2012 |
Externally published | Yes |