Anorexia: The female identity from holy misticism to the new social feminine mystique

This article analyses a number of cultural themes, such as body and food representation, bearing in mind that anorexia itself is studied as a Cultural-bound Syndrome, and it presents the results of studies carried out using Analysis of Lexical Corrispondence (ACL) on letters of mystics of the past (Caterina Benincasa, Simone Weil) who are today considered to have been anorexic, and contemproary women who suffer from anorexia nervosa. The research is part of the perspective of cultural psychiatry and social-psychology, and thus analyzes the relationship between the culture of the epoch to which the writings considered belong and the ultimate ends for which the choice of fasting was made by the authors. Specific attention is given to the self-representation of these women, in light of the meaning of the sacrifice offered by them as a function of health-salvation, socially interpreted as an expression of “mysticism”. This theme brings us to consider the evolution of the female role in Western history and the significance attributed to the body as well. The Lexical Correspondence Analysis (LCA) has been applied to letters of Caterina Benincasa, Simone Weil and letters sent to national newspapers and the modalities used by anorexic women to represent themselves have been studied.