Re: more on bigorexia

From: Kate Distin (memes@distin.co.uk)
Date: Mon 09 May 2005 - 13:38:34 GMT

  • Next message: Scott Chase: "Re: more on bigorexia"

    Derek Gatherer wrote:
    > At 12:24 09/05/2005, you wrote:
    >
    >> Not sure autism is comparable to anorexia.
    >
    >
    >
    > I think one basic difference is that a 'normal' person can suddenly
    > become anorexic, whereas I don't know any examples of somebody becoming
    > autistic. Generally, people are born autistic or escape it. I think
    > the same is true for the milder Asperger's syndrome.

    Absolutely. I really wasn't trying to draw any parallels between the two conditions. Rather, I was speculating about whether there might be the sort of genetic predisposition that you mention below, and possibly explained by an "extreme female brain" (biased towards empathy, emotion, etc. and possibly when turned inwards leading to self-harm?) in the way that Baron Cohen accounts for autism by an "extreme male brain".

    As I said, it was very speculative and only thrown out in the hope that list members more knowledgeable in this area might have ideas (or indeed contradictory information) sparked by my thoughts.

    Kate

    If I remember
    > rightly, Aaron Lynch used to try to make a case that drastic dieting was
    > a 'thought contagion' (not got chapter and verse on where that claim is
    > made, but I'll get it if required - it might just have been in a list
    > posting). I'm not sure if that also implies that anorexia is therefore
    > also posited as being a TC too - it might be possible to diet
    > drastically under social pressure without suffering the defect in
    > self-perception that is more or less taken to be necessary for anorexia.
    >
    > Current genetic studies indicate a weak disposition:
    >
    > http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15852319
    >
    > http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15852310
    >
    >
    > so it might be that the predisposed can tumble over into anorexia if the
    > social conditions are correct.
    >
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