Troublesome Bodies: How Bodies Come to Matter and Intrude in Eating Disorder Recovery

Understanding how bodies come to matter in eating disorder recovery is complex, particularly given the unresolved question of whether eating disorders are fundamentally about the body. Drawing on Analu Verbin's adaptation of Judith Butler's theory of performativity and Sarah Ahmed's body phenomenology, this paper examines how participants in a narrative and systemic group therapy program at a mental health clinic for eating disorders perceive themselves as recovering or recovered. We explore how the body is presented and understood in their recovery narratives, developing the concept of the 'troublesome body' to highlight the ambiguities these narratives reveal. The body in the participants' narratives is continuously shaped by an external gaze that alternates between recognition and concern, often oscillating between praise and scrutiny. Participants are tasked with cultivating a liberated, sensual body and a more natural relationship with food, achieved through therapeutic strategies such as establishing a mechanical eating pattern and 'neutralizing' the body in group settings. Yet the body resists, asserting its presence through physical sensations-rumbling stomachs and 'blobby' forms-that challenge these efforts. Crucially, the narrative and systemic group therapy is viewed by participants as pivotal in their recovery not because it resolves all eating disorder-related issues, but because it offers a collective space for 'troublesome bodies.' This space allows for bodies to exist without conforming to societal dichotomies or norms that are often imposed in other treatment contexts, thus, offering an alternative model of recovery where bodily ambiguities can be embraced rather than resolved.