A brilliant, disturbing study of anorexic behavior amongst medieval
Italian female saints. According to Bell, the demon that spurs
self-starvation in women is an ever-elusive ideal: in modern
America, "bodily health, thinness, and self-control"; in medieval
Christendom, "spiritual health, fasting, and self-denial." In both
cases, anorexia represents a woman's "war against bodily urges" in
a search for autonomy from a suffocating, male-dominated society.
Among Italian women saints, 50 percent of whom were anorexic, this
rebellion struck at the "patriarchy that attempts to impose itself
between the holy anorexic and her God." While holy anorexia did
little to weaken the patriarchy, it did create a new model of
holiness - the ascetic female of absolute self-sacrifice and
willpower - an image finally replaced centuries later by the ideal
of female saint as do-gooder (Mother Teresa). Bell's
psychoanalytical approach, which often pinpoints the partial source
of "saintly" behavior in childhood traumas, and consequently
threatens to undermine conventional ideas of spiritual development,
will bother many readers. He builds his case carefully, however,
with a abundance of historical documentation. Still more
disquieting are some of his anecdotes about popular saints. St.
Catherine of Siena, we learn, flogged herself with an iron chain
until blood poured from her body; St. Veronica of Guiliani couldn't
keep down simple bread and water, but she avidly consumed plates of
cat vomit and scoured spider-infested walls with her tongue. An
unsettling epilogue by psychologist William Davis examines the
implications of Bell's study for modern medical treatment of
anorexia nervosa. All in all, an original, controversial, superbly
executed shocker in academic garb. (Kirkus Reviews)
Is there a resemblance between the contemporary anorexic teenager
counting every calorie in her single-minded pursuit of thinness,
and an ascetic medieval saint examining her every desire? Rudolph
M. Bell suggests that the answer is yes.
"Everyone interested in anorexia nervosa . . . should skim this
book or study it. It will make you realize how dependent upon
culture the definition of disease is. I will never look at an
anorexic patient in the same way again."--Howard Spiro, M.D.,
"Gastroenterology"
" This] book is a first-class social history and is well-documented
both in its historical and scientific portions."--Vern L. Bullough,
"American Historical Review"
"A significant contribution to revisionist history, which
re-examines events in light of feminist thought. . . . Bell is
particularly skillful in describing behavior within its time and
culture, which would be bizarre by today's norms, without reducing
it to the pathological."--Mary Lassance Parthun, "Toronto Globe and
Mail"
"Bell is both enlightened and convincing. His book is impressively
researched, easy to read, and utterly fascinating."--Sheila
MacLeod, "New Statesman"
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