This retrospective exploratory study examined demographic variables in a sample of anorexia nervosa patients hospitalised from January 1987 to December 1996. The researcher undertook an extensive literature review of the history and epidemiology of anorexia nervosa, and found that, while changes in the demography of anorexia nervosa patients are evident in industrialised and developing countries, there is a paucity of equivalent data for South Africa. The archival records of 254 anorectics admitted for the first time to an in-patient tertiary referral centre were reviewed. Descriptive and inferential statistics were computed to determine the demographic profile of the sample, to ascertain changes in demographic variables over the ten-year period of study, and to explore the relationships between these variables. Results reflect the typical anorectic admitted to the hospital of study as a white, female, between the ages 15 to 20, and from the upper to middle social classes. The mean weight at admission for the sample was 39.24 kilograms, while the mean body mass index was 14.78 kilograms/metre2. While no significant increase in admission rates within the ten-year period was found, a marked increase in admission rates is seen when the present study's findings of 254 first admissions over ten years (averaging 25 admissions per year) is compared to a previous study's findings of 54 admissions over a three-year period (averaging 18 admissions per year) at the same institution. Over the ten-year period of study, no significant trends or relationships were found with regard to the following variables: sex; race; age at admission; and socioeconomic status. However, a significant decreasing trend in weight and body mass index was found from 1987 to 1996, and a significant relationship was found between mother's socioeconomic status, and subject's weight and body mass index, respectively. Results also show evidence of an increasing number of males, Indians, children, and individuals over the age of 40 becoming vulnerable to anorexia nervosa. The extent to which these findings are generalisable to a broader-based South African cohort are questionable, due to the fact that the study was conducted in a single setting, and due to the influence of the historical context of the setting. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1999.

Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 53-55).

Thesis (M.A.)--Marshall University, 2002. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains 179 p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 178-179).

徐文艷. / Thesis (doctoral)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 259-278). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / Xu Wenyan.

Chow Yuet-ming. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 254-262). / Abstracts in English and Chinese, appendix in Chinese. / Abstract --- p.i / Acknowledgement --- p.iv / Chapter Chapter 1: --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Rationale for Selecting this Research Topic --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Research Objectives --- p.4 / Chapter 1.3 --- Research Questions --- p.5 / Chapter 1.4 --- Overview of the Present Thesis --- p.5 / Chapter Chapter 2: --- Literature review --- p.7 / Chapter 2.1 --- Anorexia Nervosa in Western Countries --- p.7 / Chapter 2.1.1 --- Historical Perspective --- p.8 / Chapter 2.1.2 --- Biomedical Perspective --- p.10 / Chapter 2.1.2.1 --- Physiological manifestation of anorexia nervosa patients --- p.10 / Chapter 2.1.2.2 --- Behavioral manifestation of anorexia nervosa patients --- p.12 / Chapter 2.1.3 --- Psychological Models --- p.14 / Chapter 2.1.3.1 --- Bruch ´ةs view --- p.14 / Chapter 2.1.3.2 --- Minuchin´ةs view --- p.16 / Chapter 2.1.3.3 --- Palazzoli 's view --- p.17 / Chapter 2.1.4 --- Sociological Perspective --- p.24 / Chapter 2.1.5 --- Summary of Part I (2.1) --- p.30 / Chapter 2.2 --- Psychology of Self-development --- p.33 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- "Erikson ,s identity formation" --- p.33 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- Women self-development --- p.38 / Chapter 2.2.3 --- Bowen's differentiation of self --- p.42 / Chapter 2.2.4 --- Summary of Part II (2.2) --- p.46 / Chapter 2.3 --- Anorexia Nervosa in Hong Kong Context --- p.48 / Chapter 2.3.1 --- The notion of self in traditional Chinese family --- p.49 / Chapter 2.3.2 --- Women position in Hong Kong --- p.55 / Chapter 2.3.3 --- Related research in Hong Kong --- p.62 / Chapter 2.3.4 --- Summary of Part III (2.3) --- p.69 / Chapter Chapter 3: --- Theoretical framework --- p.71 / Chapter 3.1 --- Theoretical Framework as Summarized from the Literature Review --- p.71 / Chapter 3.2 --- Definition of Terms --- p.77 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- Anorexia nervosa --- p.77 / Chapter 3.2.2 --- Family --- p.78 / Chapter 3.2.3 --- Family interaction --- p.79 / Chapter 3.2.4 --- Family rule --- p.79 / Chapter 3.2.5 --- Family myths --- p.80 / Chapter 3.2.6 --- Family myths as quest for meaning --- p.80 / Chapter 3.2.7 --- Meaning --- p.80 / Chapter 3.2.8 --- Power --- p.81 / Chapter 3.2.9 --- Power struggle --- p.81 / Chapter 3.2.10 --- Differentiation of self --- p.81 / Chapter Chapter 4: --- Research Methodology --- p.83 / Chapter 4.1 --- General Overview --- p.83 / Chapter 4.2 --- Research Methodology of this Study --- p.88 / Chapter 4.2.1 --- Rationale in Selecting Qualitative Method --- p.88 / Chapter 4.2.2 --- Research Design --- p.89 / Chapter 4.2.3 --- Unit of Analysis --- p.90 / Chapter 4.2.4 --- Sampling --- p.90 / Chapter 4.2.5 --- Methods of Data Collection --- p.92 / Chapter 4.2.5.1 --- Direct Observation of the Family Interviews of AN families --- p.92 / Chapter 4.2.5.2 --- Participant Observation in an AN Mutual Support Group --- p.94 / Chapter 4.2.5.3 --- Summary of the Case Study Protocol of this Study --- p.96 / Chapter 4.2.6 --- Time Frame for Data Collection --- p.96 / Chapter 4.2.7 --- Method of Analysis --- p.97 / Chapter 4.2.8 --- Validity and Reliability of this Study --- p.97 / Chapter 4.2.9 --- Summary of Chapter --- p.98 / Chapter Chapter 5: --- Results of the Study :Data Gathered from Family Interview Sessions --- p.100 / Chapter 5.1 --- Case History --- p.100 / Chapter 5.2 --- Results Gathered from Family Interview Sessions --- p.104 / Chapter 5.2.1 --- Having difficulties in differentiating from the family and self- starvation as a means of asserting the personal boundariesin the families --- p.104 / Chapter 5.2.2 --- Being triangulated in the parents' marital discords and self- starvation as a means of diluting their conflicts --- p.122 / Chapter 5.2.3 --- Self-sacrificing for the family interest --- p.131 / Chapter 5.2.4 --- "Being helpless and powerless in the families, self-starvation as a means of empowering the mothers in the families " --- p.134 / Chapter Chapter 6: --- Results of the Study:Data Gathered from Mutual Support Group Sessions --- p.138 / Chapter 6.1 --- Case History --- p.138 / Chapter 6.2 --- Results Gathered from Mutual Support Group sessions --- p.140 / Chapter 6.2.1 --- Having difficulties in handling peer relationship --- p.140 / Chapter 6.2.2 --- Having difficulties in resisting their mothers intrusiveness to their personal boundaries and self-starvation as a means of exerting their personal boundaries --- p.143 / Chapter 6.2.3 --- Being triangulated in their parents marital discords and self- starvation as a means of diluting the marital conflicts --- p.149 / Chapter 6.2.4 --- Acting for their mothers in the families --- p.149 / Chapter 6.3 --- Cross-checking of findings with group members and worker --- p.161 / Chapter Chapter 7: --- Discussions and Conclusion --- p.163 / Chapter 7.1 --- Research Findings of this Study --- p.163 / Chapter 7.2 --- Contributions of this Study --- p.173 / Chapter 7.3 --- Limitations of this Study --- p.174 / Chapter 7.4 --- Recommendation --- p.175 / Chapter 7.4.1 --- Future Research --- p.175 / Chapter 7.4.1.1 --- Proposed Theoretical Framework for Future Study --- p.175 / Chapter 7.4.1.2 --- Proposed Methodology --- p.179 / Chapter 7.4.2 --- Management of AN patients --- p.179 / Chapter 7.4.3 --- Prevention of AN --- p.181 / Appendix I: The Chinese verbatim of family interview sessions --- p.183 / Appendix II: The Chinese verbatim of mutual support group sessions --- p.234 / List of Figures: / Figure 1: Summary of the framework from western literature --- p.75 / "Figure 2: Interplay among individual, family and society " --- p.76 / Figure 3: Socio-demographic characteristics of the AN patients and their families of the family interview sessions --- p.91 / Figure 4: Socio-demographic characteristics of the AN patients and their families of the mutual support group --- p.92 / Figure 5: Summary of the proposed theoretical framework of Understanding self-starvation in Hong Kong --- p.178 / Bibliography --- p.254

A growing body of research recognizes spirituality as a key element in well-being, but the agency of individual spirituality remains unclear. This study explores the role of embodied knowledge in reality construction and its effect on illness by considering how spirituality as embodied existence shapes reality. Spirituality, as a form of embodied knowing, is shown to reach deeply into the fundamental relatedness of existence. The study argues for a mindbody- spirit unity, making no distinction between self and spirit, emotions and subjective experiences situated in the spirit. As the medium between body and self, spirituality gives form to the felt reality of embodied knowledge and meaning, shaping language, cognition, thought and action towards lived reality. New ways of thinking about eating disorders were stimulated by innovative discoveries through investigating the lived reality of the illness within an epistemology that included subjective experiences as part of reality. While acknowledging the influence of social discourse, the study calls for a recognition of vulnerability in the human condition giving rise to the embodiment of a wounded self or disenabling spirituality, manifested in the development of an eating disorder. It uncovers the anti-spiritual properties involved in the lived reality of people struggling with anorexia/bulimia, evident in social withdrawal and/or self-injury. Behavioural patterns of obsession and repetition underscore similarities to addiction and ritual. The study synthesised pastoral therapy and research. A postmodern approach to illness and a qualitative design with interpretive phenomenology were used. Three young women struggling with anorexia/bulimia participated in semi-structured research interviews. Their narrative accounts provided a chronology of developing, living with and healing from anorexia /bulimia. Emphasis shifted from an approach aimed at fixing the body to focusing on individual experiences of the illness; what she brought to the encounter in her own resources and potential to heal. Healing is envisaged as the ongoing development of a renewed sense of self, an inherently spiritual process orchestrated from within. Previous disassociation of body and self is replaced with reconnection between body, self and other, care of the spirit became care of the body, expressed in harmony and wholeness of being. / Practical Theology / D.Div. (Pastoral therapy)

Chan Chung Yee Zenobia. / "August 2003." / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 407-438). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese.

A growing body of research recognizes spirituality as a key element in well-being, but the agency of individual spirituality remains unclear. This study explores the role of embodied knowledge in reality construction and its effect on illness by considering how spirituality as embodied existence shapes reality. Spirituality, as a form of embodied knowing, is shown to reach deeply into the fundamental relatedness of existence. The study argues for a mindbody- spirit unity, making no distinction between self and spirit, emotions and subjective experiences situated in the spirit. As the medium between body and self, spirituality gives form to the felt reality of embodied knowledge and meaning, shaping language, cognition, thought and action towards lived reality. New ways of thinking about eating disorders were stimulated by innovative discoveries through investigating the lived reality of the illness within an epistemology that included subjective experiences as part of reality. While acknowledging the influence of social discourse, the study calls for a recognition of vulnerability in the human condition giving rise to the embodiment of a wounded self or disenabling spirituality, manifested in the development of an eating disorder. It uncovers the anti-spiritual properties involved in the lived reality of people struggling with anorexia/bulimia, evident in social withdrawal and/or self-injury. Behavioural patterns of obsession and repetition underscore similarities to addiction and ritual. The study synthesised pastoral therapy and research. A postmodern approach to illness and a qualitative design with interpretive phenomenology were used. Three young women struggling with anorexia/bulimia participated in semi-structured research interviews. Their narrative accounts provided a chronology of developing, living with and healing from anorexia /bulimia. Emphasis shifted from an approach aimed at fixing the body to focusing on individual experiences of the illness; what she brought to the encounter in her own resources and potential to heal. Healing is envisaged as the ongoing development of a renewed sense of self, an inherently spiritual process orchestrated from within. Previous disassociation of body and self is replaced with reconnection between body, self and other, care of the spirit became care of the body, expressed in harmony and wholeness of being. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / Th. D. (Pastoral therapy)

This qualitative action research was activated at the junction between three sites of operation of modern power: the site of the woman in the family, religious and cultural power discourses and the professional discourses of therapy. Using an action research design for this study focused the research on reaping benefits in real terms for the research participants. The researcher applied a postStructuralist, feminist and narrative approach to the phenomenon of failed personhood as manifested in the lives of two White Afrikaans women. Narrative therapy methodologiElS, steeped in a religious studies ethic were valuable guides on the therapy-as-research journeys, ensuring the exposure and deconstruction of dominant cultural and religious power discourses. In the course of the therapeutic and research journeys, various narrative therapy methodologies were used with positive effect on the life world of the participants. These methodologies included the externalisation of problems and the discovery of unique outcomes that constitute alternative, preferred life stories that contradict problem-saturated life stories of failed personhood. The research participants engaged in individual and communal conversations, relanguaging their self-narratives and religious narratives as part of the coconstruction of their preferred identities of moral agency and hope. Support networks were created for the research participants, Mara and Grace, to strengthen their new self- and religious narratives and to dislodge the power of the normative cultural and religious discourses of rugged individualism. In one instance, the researcher incorporated the healing power of South African bush veld, by inviting a group of women on a series of expeditions into the wilderness as part of Mara's journey. fn Grace's narrative, we utilised the modern technologies of the internet to connect her with a virtual response team and the Anti-Anorexia/Anti-Bulimia League. Storytelling and reflecting conversations formed the basis of the therapy-asresearch processes. The research participants extended therapy conversations beyond the therapy room, by actively participating in their therapy-as-research journeys. In line with narrative approaches, the researcher encouraged them to honour their skills and knowledges on their journeys: Mara extended her therapy by making resistance quilts while Grace assimilated her art, poetry and resistance writing into her healing process. / Religious Studies and Arabic / D. Litt. et Phil. (Religious Studies)

This qualitative action research was activated at the junction between three sites of operation of modern power: the site of the woman in the family, religious and cultural power discourses and the professional discourses of therapy. Using an action research design for this study focused the research on reaping benefits in real terms for the research participants. The researcher applied a postStructuralist, feminist and narrative approach to the phenomenon of failed personhood as manifested in the lives of two White Afrikaans women. Narrative therapy methodologiElS, steeped in a religious studies ethic were valuable guides on the therapy-as-research journeys, ensuring the exposure and deconstruction of dominant cultural and religious power discourses. In the course of the therapeutic and research journeys, various narrative therapy methodologies were used with positive effect on the life world of the participants. These methodologies included the externalisation of problems and the discovery of unique outcomes that constitute alternative, preferred life stories that contradict problem-saturated life stories of failed personhood. The research participants engaged in individual and communal conversations, relanguaging their self-narratives and religious narratives as part of the coconstruction of their preferred identities of moral agency and hope. Support networks were created for the research participants, Mara and Grace, to strengthen their new self- and religious narratives and to dislodge the power of the normative cultural and religious discourses of rugged individualism. In one instance, the researcher incorporated the healing power of South African bush veld, by inviting a group of women on a series of expeditions into the wilderness as part of Mara's journey. fn Grace's narrative, we utilised the modern technologies of the internet to connect her with a virtual response team and the Anti-Anorexia/Anti-Bulimia League. Storytelling and reflecting conversations formed the basis of the therapy-asresearch processes. The research participants extended therapy conversations beyond the therapy room, by actively participating in their therapy-as-research journeys. In line with narrative approaches, the researcher encouraged them to honour their skills and knowledges on their journeys: Mara extended her therapy by making resistance quilts while Grace assimilated her art, poetry and resistance writing into her healing process. / Religious Studies and Arabic / D. Litt. et Phil. (Religious Studies)