In what Way is Eating Disordered in the Eating Disorders?

Clinical and experimental studies have attempted to characterize abnormal or disordered eating behaviour in individuals diagnosed as eating-disordered. The objectives of this paper are to review these studies and to present evidence of the contradictions and complexities which emerge. Since normal eating behaviour is not well understood, it is perhaps unsurprising that the identification and description of disordered processes are also difficult. Aberrant eating behaviour has indeed been observed in eating disordered individuals. However, abnormal eating seems to develop in response to the drive for thinness rather than arising from a primary deficit in appetite regulation, taste perception or control of eating. It is argued here that self-starvation, binge eating and the binge-purge cycle are secondary to overvalued ideas about weight and shape.