ABSTRACT

This chapter aims to overcome the simplistic behavioural assessment suggested by the DSM. It provides a comprehensive description of the main psychopathological dimensions in the persons affected by Eating disorders (ED)–especially focusing on the subjective perception of their own body and their personal identity. The basic idea is that ED patients can be better understood as suffering from a specific disorder of lived corporeality contributing to an anomalous constitution of one's identity. The vulnerability to ED behaviours, such as binge eating, appeared to be associated with abnormal bodily experiences in a dimensional pattern. There are theoretical as well as clinical reasons to consider abnormal eating behaviours as epiphenomena of a more profound disorder of lived corporeality and self-identity. Especially one dimension–the lived body-for-others as described by J. P. Sartre–seems to represent the core concept to grasp the anomalies of lived corporeality in ED patients.