I Am a Waste of Breath, of Space, of Time

Metaphors of Self in a Pro-Anorexia Group

Bibliographic Data

ID4649858
AuthorsCarolina Figueras Bates (0000-0002-4071-1371, Universitat de Barcelona, corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume25
Issue2
Pages189-204
Publication date2015-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueQualitative Health Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1049-7323 • E-ISSN: 1552-7557
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1049732314550004
PMID25225049
OpenAlexW2103317591
LanguageEN
Citations received12
References cited82

According to recent research on eating disorders, heavy users of pro-anorexia (pro-ana) sites show higher levels of disordered eating and more severe impairment of quality of life than non-heavy users. A better understanding of how pro-ana members self-present in the virtual world could shed some light on these offline behaviors. Through discourse analysis, I examined the metaphors the members of a pro-ana group invoked in their personal profiles on a popular social networking site, to talk about the self. I applied the Metaphor Identification Procedure to 757 text profiles. I identified four key metaphorical constructions in pro-ana members' self-descriptions: self as space, self as weight, perfecting the self, and the social self. These four main metaphors represented discourse strategies, both to create a collective pro-ana identity and to enact an individual identity as pro-ana. In this article, I discuss the implications of these findings for the treatment of eating disorders

Aesthetics · Art · Eating disorders · Linguistics · Metaphor · Sociology · Clinical Psychology · Computer Science · Digital Communication and Language · Humor Studies and Applications · Impact of Technology on Adolescents · Psychology · Social Psychology

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