Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 13, 2026

A Computer-Based Platform for Aiding Clinicians in Eating Disorder Analysis and Diagnosis
Published on: May 10, 2022
René Girard and the Mimetic Nature of Eating Disorders
1Stockholm Centre for Eating Disorders, Wollmar Yxkullsgatan 27B, 118 50, Stockholm, Sweden. mattias.strand@ki.se.
Abstract:
French historian and literary critic René Girard (1923-2015), most widely known for the concepts of mimetic desire and scapegoating, also engaged in the discussion of the surge of eating disorders in his 1996 essay Eating Disorders and Mimetic Desire. This article explores Girard's ideas on the mimetic nature and origin of eating disorders from a clinical psychiatric perspective and contextualizes them within the field of eating disorders research as well as in relation to broader psychological, sociological and anthropological models of social comparison and non-consumption. Three main themes in Girard's thinking on the topic of eating disorders are identified and explored: the 'end of prohibitions' as a driving force in the emergence of eating disorders, eating disorders as a phenomenon specific to modernity, and the significance of 'conspicuous non-consumption' in the emergence of eating disorders.
Related Concept Videos
Binge Eating Disorders
What is Natural Selection?
Nature and Nurture
Intrinsically Disordered Proteins
Chirality in Nature
Bone Disorders
Bone deposition is also affected by the levels of sex hormones like estrogen and testosterone that promote osteoblast activity and bone matrix synthesis. When the level of these hormones decreases due to aging, it causes a reduction in bone deposition. As a result, bone resorption by osteoclasts...

