Tu use the term BAD EATING HABITS is to reference a very complex
construction.
If one, as a psychologist, attempts to lay out the construct system
which generates the unwanted behavior that would be subsumed by that
construction, he/she would be engaged in a very complicated study.
In fact, eating, in general, takes place in a context which includes
very complex construction systems.
Certainly, when I alluded to Titian's models, Kate Moss, and pasta
putanesca, I intended to tap into those complex constuction systems. I hope
that I did.
Perhaps I should make the point more directly: I claim that there is
little value in referencing constructions developed for use in understanding
physical anomolies when one wishes to construe unwanted eating behaviors. We
have enough of a problem fathoming the constructions which surround eating in
general -- Take for example the apparently common construct ABHOR-LIKE; as in
"I ABHOR broccoli," or "I LIKE chocolate ice cream." Very young children use
this construct. What does it reference???? What did the social surround which
helped the child to develop that construct intend to reference -- a button in
the brain that was pushed when a particular set of chemicals activated the
taste buds on a particular section of the tongue?????
And, if one is attempting "to do psychotherapy" with the people who
used the constructions which lead to the behavior which is labeled with the
term ANOREXIA or BULEMIA, does that psychotherapist contribute to the kinds of
social reconstructions that would give Kate Moss the status of a SKINNY,
UNHEALTHY WAIF, rather than her current status as a POPULAR, SOUGHT AFTER
SUPERMODEL.
As PSYCHOLOGISTS have we generated a theory suitable to convincing the
social surround that our constructions will ultimately prove useful? Or,
should we work with American Psychological Association to prove to the public
that we should be allowed to collect high fees for tagging people with
greco-latinized terms that give our function the aura of medical practice?
Jim Mancuso
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