La santa anoressia. Digiuno e misticismo dal Medioevo a oggi

This was okay--a bit reductionist and anachronistic in its conclusions. You should go read Caroline Bynum's Holy Feast, Holy Fast for a richer, more complex view of medieval female religiosity and relationship with body control.

Two times reading this, I have come to the conclusion which I admit that Rudolph M. Bell has done his research and is a good writer but I can't just appreciate this as academical nonfiction. The case basically is that Bell applies the diagnosis of anorexia nervosa to medieval women saints' who starv Leggi tutto

a really interesting and thorough study of the plausible convergence between what we currently diagnose as anorexia nervosa and the plethora of historical accounts of female saints and devotees engaging in rituals of extreme fasting which the author refers to as "holy anorexia", i.e., the specific a Leggi tutto

Psicostoria... Mettere in parallelo storia e analisi psicologica. Le testimonianze delle vitae delle sante (agiografiche certo ma non solo) e quel disturbo dell’alimentazione che si chiama anoressia. Bell ne analizza 261 di queste vitae, di sante italiane su un arco di tempo che va dal XIII al XVI Leggi tutto

I found this challenging to rate despite enjoying the tales of the dedication of female saints, discovering their quirks and character, and being fascinated by the decision to link female saints and modern anorexics. However, Bell's scholarly practice is questionable, and the book lacks an overarchi Leggi tutto

Rudolph Bell’s work Holy Anorexia examines women’s quest for liberation and autonomy through the process of self-starvation and flagellation. Bell argues that women resisted patriarchal domination at home and in the church by forging a place for themselves as holy heroines. Rudolph Bell’s immense un Leggi tutto

Other than Bell’s weird preoccupation with Freud, which I ascribe to his scholarship being dated at this point (nearly 40 years old now), this is a good exploration of what he terms “holy anorexia” among medieval saints. I have read some of the very low star reviews and I feel like many are missing Leggi tutto

So firstly the positives. Since the for the bulk of the book, Bell simply recounts tales from each of the saints lives that he examines, it's mostly an interesting, yet upsetting and disturbing, read. However as the point of this book is to draw comparisons between the holy anorexia of medieval wome Leggi tutto

I feel like he sometimes stretches his argument, and he definitely overlooks a few things, but overall this is a lot of fun and hot damn Catholics are really just like that