Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: anorexia

  • The Barbie doll syndrome

    Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “In all the years I’ve been a therapist, I’ve yet to meet a girl who likes her body.”1– Mary Pipher, PhD, clinical psychologist In 1959, the Mattel toy company introduced a doll in the US that was not modeled on a baby or small child, but rather on a young adult. The…

  • A picture of ill-health: The illness of Elizabeth Siddal

    Emily BoyleDublin, Ireland It is difficult to think of Ophelia, one of Shakespeare’s most famous characters, without bringing to mind the famous depiction of her by John Everett Millais. In Hamlet, the sensitive and fragile Ophelia is driven mad by grief after her lover Hamlet rejects her and kills her father Polonius. After very poetically…

  • The poetics of the body

    Rachel BaerPennsylvania, United States Pathographies are narratives that describe the intimate emotional effects of illness and disability. Body Story, a creative work in which Julia K. De Pree shares her experience with anorexia, exemplifies this type of writing. According to the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Eating Disorders Association, anorexia is an…

  • Self-inflicted

    Laura OlearChicago, Illinois, USA Artist’s statement This series of mixed media drawings is abstracted from biological imagery. They explore issues of control over one’s own health in the form of “self-inflicted” conditions or diseases. Obesity, anorexia, smoking, tanning, excessive alcohol consumption, and self-mutilation can all result in a variety of potentially life-threatening conditions. One could…