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Objective: The aim of the study was to provide a qualitative analysis of anomalous bodily experiences (ABEs) of persons affected by feeding and eating disorders (FEDs). In particular, this study aimed to refine the description of bodily experiences in persons with FEDs so as to improve their treatment. Sampling and Methods: This is a naturalistic explorative study on a group of 29 patients affected by FED in psychotherapeutic treatment and 12 healthy controls. We asked the participants to write a letter on the way they experience their body. Later, we analysed their letters by means of consensual qualitative research. Results: All patients (29) reported at least 1 ABE. The main categories identified are (1) body-obstacle (the body interposes between the person and the world); (2) body-tyrant (the body imposes itself on the will of the person); (3) body-hyper-visible (the body is experienced as an exposed object); (4) body-geometric (the body is experienced or associated with a geometric form); and (5) body-numerical (the body is defined by numbers). All these categories are present in the clinical group, and they are absent in the control group. Conclusion: To grasp the experiential nuances of ABEs is relevant to understand the disorder of embodied self-hood and personal identity in these patients and thus to refine clinical treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a previous paper, we discussed a model that considers abnormal eating behaviour epiphenomena of a more profound disorder of lived corporeality and identity (Stanghellini and Mancini, this issue). The core idea is that persons with FEDs experience their own body first and foremost as an object being looked at by another, rather than coenaesthetically or from a first-person perspective. In this paper, alienation from one's own emotions, disgust and shame for one's body of persons with FED, will be discussed in the light of the embodiment and identity model of FED. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to define and describe the main phenomenological dimensions of the life-world of persons prone to Feeding and Eating Disorders (FEDs), within the framework of a model that considers abnormal eating behaviour an epiphenomenon of a more profound disorder of lived corporeality and identity. The core idea is that persons with FEDs experience their own body first and foremost as an object being looked at by another, rather than coenaesthetically or from a firstperson perspective. Alienation from one's own body and the need to feel oneself only through the gaze of the others can be illuminated by looking at it in the light of the Sartrean concept of feeling a lived-body-for-others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article builds on and extends the 'optical-coenaesthetic disproportion' (OCDisp) hypothesis of feeding and eating disorders (FEDs) matching data obtained through clinical research with laboratory evidence from neuroscience and neuropsychological studies. The OCDisp hypothesis, developed through the assessment in clinical setting of bodily experience using the IDentity and EAting (IDEA) disorder questionnaire, argues that in persons with FED the internal perception of one's embodied self (i.e., coenaesthesia) is deeply affected (their possibility to feel themselves is weakened or threatened by coenaesthopathic and emotional paroxysms; their bodily feelings are discontinuous over time), and as a compensation to it, these persons experience their own body as an object that is looked at by others. To FED persons, their body is principally given to them as an object 'to be seen.' The other's look serves as an optical prosthesis to cope with hypo- and dis-coenaesthesia and as a device through which persons with FED can define themselves and attenuate the anxiety produced by the conflicts between being-oneself and being-for-others. After describing the OCDisp hypothesis, we will gather evidence supporting it with neuroscience studies on FED. Our focus will be on data pointing to dampened multisensory integration of interoceptive and esteroceptive signals, demonstrating a predominance of the visual afferents toward signals arising within the body. In the final part of the article, we will show consistencies but also draw distinctions between our clinical hypothesis and neuroscience-based data and hypotheses and draft a potential agenda for translational research inspired by these. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eating Disorders (EDs) show a multifactorial etiopathogenesis including environmental, psychological and biological factors. In the present study, we propose a model of interactions between genetic vulnerability—represented by Fat Mass and Obesity-Associated (FTO) gene—and stable psychopathological traits, such as bodily disorders and emotion dysregulation for EDs patients. The distribution of a polymorphism of the FTO (rs9939609 T>A) was evaluated in a series of 250 EDs patients and in a group of 119 healthy control subjects. Clinical data were collected through a face-to-face interview and several self-reported questionnaires were applied, including the Emotional Eating Scale and the IDentity and EAting disorders (IDEA) questionnaire for bodily disorders and self-identity. The A-allele was associated with an increased vulnerability to EDs (AA+AT genotypes frequency 72.8% in EDs vs. 52.9% in controls). The presence of the A-allele was associated with binge eating behavior, higher emotional eating and higher IDEA scores. Finally, the FTO rs9939609 SNP was found to influence the relationship between these variables, as an association between disorder of corporeality and emotional eating was found only in A-allele carriers. A-allele seems to represent a potential additive risk factor for EDs persons, with bodily disorders to develop emotional eating and binge eating behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]