Eating disorders are complex illnesses that involve physical, psychological and emotional suffering. Those who suffer from eating disorders experience intense journeys; observing these journeys may produce meaningful implications that can help us understand the suffering experience, as well as the course of their illness. The following four photos provide distinct narratives that illustrate the experience of suffering from eating disorders; each of these images portray narrative concepts that are in relation to the theories of Arthur Frank in The Wounded Storyteller: Body, Illness, and Ethics. By relating these four images to Frank’s concepts, we can begin to comprehend the perspectives of the ill and understand the meaning of the experiences that exist when suffering from eating disorders.
The first image is two photos of a woman’s body before and after her eating disorder experience. Her first photo is taken of herself at a hospital during a life-threatening stage of anorexia. Her second photo shows her body a year after this treatment. Her choice to be nearly naked in both of these photos signifies her willingness to reveal her true body-self and expose her suffering; her intention to expose her body signifies to viewers that she is no longer ashamed to acknowledge her
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By indicating the scale has an authority over the woman, we understand the eating disorder's impact is dominating and ruling. Similarly, the choice for this photo to be black and white adds another element to the intensity of the eating disorder for the woman. Colour is an element of stimulus to promote expression and emotion; therefore, the lack of colour suggests expressing a normal life is nonviable, and the impact from the eating disorder overrules any possibility to live