The Analysis of Biographical Scenarios and Experiences of Eating Disorders (ED) on the Example of Young Women in St. Petersburg

The problem of «eating disorders» (EDs), that has been widely discussed in recent decades and became topical, relate to medical phenomena and is represented within the medical discourse. However, at present, this disorder is also actively understood from the position of socio-cultural and feminist concepts, which try to go beyond medical knowledge. The study of the phenomenon at the present level also requires addressing the experiences of individual women who are part of the discourse. Thus, the following research question was formulated - how do young females in Russia (in case of St. Petersburg) experience their eating disorders? The specific feature of the study is that the author also considers those girls who do not receive medical treatment and remain outside the field of medical research, as they have had negative experiences with medical institutions in the past, or do not consider their disorder to be an illness. To answer this question, open coding of women’s narratives were performed. A literature review was conducted in which bodily norms were defined and eating disorders were placed in the context of adopting those norms.