The Anorexic Quest for Liberation and the Salvific Promise of Early Buddhism: Contextualizing Self-Discipline

Anorexia Nervosa is a debilitating illness characterized by the limitation of food intake and a fear of weight gain. While we might at face value take the illness to be irrational, within this project we find that the dangerous condition is fueled by a foundation of justifications based on shared cultural ideas and the values derived from them. I will argue that anorexia occurs when an individual manages to embody attitudes of mind, body, and desire found in the Western philosophical tradition. For the anorexic, rather than being a project of vanity, losing weight can be understood as a spiritual project of transcending the human body and dissolving craving, thus, a quest for liberation. The illness functions in a way in which the anorexic individual sees the world through a filter that seeks out motivation to continue starving, as the self-denial is so extreme that it goes against the individual’s basic human instinct of survival and thus requires constant fuel to persist. What I...Show moreAnorexia Nervosa is a debilitating illness characterized by the limitation of food intake and a fear of weight gain. While we might at face value take the illness to be irrational, within this project we find that the dangerous condition is fueled by a foundation of justifications based on shared cultural ideas and the values derived from them. I will argue that anorexia occurs when an individual manages to embody attitudes of mind, body, and desire found in the Western philosophical tradition. For the anorexic, rather than being a project of vanity, losing weight can be understood as a spiritual project of transcending the human body and dissolving craving, thus, a quest for liberation. The illness functions in a way in which the anorexic individual sees the world through a filter that seeks out motivation to continue starving, as the self-denial is so extreme that it goes against the individual’s basic human instinct of survival and thus requires constant fuel to persist. What I call the anorexic worldview is a system of values and beliefs that promises the individual who adopts it liberation through transcending one’s ordinary humanity and becoming invulnerable, but at the end of the day, this worldview serves merely the contrary purpose of powering the mental and physical deterioration of the individual. Interestingly, themes inherent to anorexia such as a negative view of the body and the strict denial of craving are also prevalent in early Buddhist philosophy.Show less

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The Anorexic Quest for Liberation and the Salvific Promise of Early Buddhism: Contextualizing Self-Discipline