The Psychology of Eating: From Healthy to Disordered Behavior

Eating Disorders 245

In line with this, a child may develop anorexia within a family which has
blurred boundaries and which shows conflict avoidance as a means of main-
taining the homeostasis of the family system.

Problems with a family systems model
There are several problems with a family systems analysis:

• Clinicians and researchers working from a family systems perspective
  state that they do not blame the family for the development of an eating
  disorder. Implicit within this approach, however, is a sense that the pro-
  blem was caused by the way in which the family functions. Further,
  therapy based on this analysis focuses on changing the way the family
  functions as a means to reduce the anorexic’s symptoms. Blame and
  responsibility may be detrimental to the patient’s health.


• A family systems approach is useful for explaining the onset of eating
  disorders during adolescence when the individual is still embedded within
  her family, but some cases of anorexia and many cases of bulimia start
  after the individual has left home and has established herself as an inde-
  pendent adult. A family systems approach is less effective at explaining
  later-onset problems.


• The central tenets of a family systems approach explain why an indi-
  vidual may develop psychological problems. They do not, however, explain
  why an individual develops an eating disorder rather than depression,
  or anxiety-related problems.


• A family systems approach can explain why most individuals with
  eating disorders are women and why this is a problem for the West.
  It does not explain what has changed over the past few decades to result
  in the increased prevalence of eating disorders.

A sociocultural model of eating disorders

A sociocultural model of eating disorders places the anorexic or bulimic
patient within their social context and analyzes eating disorders as an expres-
sion of social values. Some writers in this field draw upon the work of
Yap (1951) and Devereux (1980a, 1980b), and describe eating disorders as
a culture-bound syndromeor an ethnic disorder. From this perspective,
eating disorders are considered expressions of anxieties and unresolved
problems within a given culture, and as described by Gordon (2000), “one