ABSTRACT
Embodiment and eating disorders are situated at the crossroads of a variety of disciplines, and together they represent an integration of developmental, counselling, and clinical psychology, philosophy, medicine, politics, literature, culture, and neuroscience. The chapter describes the importance of embodiment for understanding eating disorders, situates eating disorders as a problem of gender-based oppression resulting from women's value existing in their bodies. It explores phenomenological theories of embodiment and Existential Analysis. The chapter presents the developmental theory of embodiment. It also presents the challenges in conceptualizing and measuring embodiment. The chapter discusses the need for embodied approaches to research. It also discusses the need for health promotion programs and identifies the protective role of spirituality in promoting healthy experiences of embodiment. Conceptualization, practice and research related to eating disorders need to maintain a holistic conceptualization of the self as inextricably connected to the lived body experience.
