Some societies, thinking that they are on the forefront of scientific
exploration, will use categories which have a quasi-medical halo.
The category names take often take their derivation from high-sounding
Greco-Latin terms -- e. g. AN OREXIA [Isn't that an impressive term -- almost
as jazzy as SCHIZ O PHRENIA?].
And so, the term allows reification -- bad eating habits BECOME a
disease which a person HAS!!!!
Oh well -it's just a metaphor, isn't it. We all know that the name
names a social construction; don't we?
Sure -- and it's helpful, as well. It allows us to do studies. We can
do CAT scans; telling the DISEASED person to think of chocolate cakes, carrots,
and cole slaw [maybe pasta, as well]. Then we can discover the spot in the CNS
that heats up when the person thinks about vomiting up some chocolate cake.
With that, we can look for a drug that knocks out that hot spot -- and, voila,
we have the CURE for the disease.
A bit far fetched -- but why not? It should be worth about 500Gs in
grant money.
And, it all began when we decided to construe bad eating practices as a
disease.
Perhaps we should reinstitute Titian's models as the ideal; banish the
Kate Moss types to Siberia; and profess the pleasures of pasta putanesca!!!
Jim Mancuso
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