Anorexia Nervosa - en fast identitet i en flytande modernitet? : En kvalitativ undersökning av individer som utvecklat anorexia

Sammanfattning: The aim of this study is to analyze how individuals experience their eating disorder, the focus being if anorexia may be perceived as a secure safe zone in the new modern world. The aim is to examine if individuals affected with anorexia nervosa understand the disorder as a solution to the modern worlds changes and the new individual freedom that it entails. This will be analyzed with the help of terms in Erich Fromms theories about escape mechanisms and Catarina Kinnvalls theories about the modern worlds ontological insecurity. The study is based on data collected from four informants of different ages and gender. The interviews were conducted through email and informants were chosen based on a strategic selection and snowball sampling. For the analysis of the empirical material Fromms escape mechanisms (authoritarianism, destructiveness and automaton conformity) and Kinnvalls theories of identity in the modern world have been used. The results of the analysis show that the eating disorder has a great significance for the individual construction and maintenance of identity and that the eating disorder becomes a safe zone to retreat to in a world of performance anxiety. To escape the anxiety that arises when individuals are faced with unmanageable choices he/she develops anorexia in an attempt to regain a sense of control and security.