Reading a room you've been locked into: Eating (disorders), bodies, and society

Reading a room you've been locked into: Eating (disorders), bodies, and society

Author: Charts & Leisure December 4, 2024 Duration: 34:46

In this episode of Unravelling, Mary Wilson interviews Emmeline Clein, author of Dead Weight: Essays on Hunger and Harm and a featured guest at the 2024 Brattleboro Literary Festival. Emmeline critiques the systemic failures in diagnosing and treating eating disorders, highlighting the emotional invalidation many patients face—particularly the harm of being told they don’t "qualify" for certain diagnoses. She explores how treatment centers often reinforce disordered behaviors instead of addressing them holistically and reflects on the lifelong process of managing disordered eating in a culture obsessed with thinness. Emmeline shares how education about the history of beauty standards and diagnostic systems can reduce shame and foster empowerment. Advocating for open dialogue and community in treatment settings, she offers a vision for creating more effective and compassionate support systems.


Links: 

Emmeline Clein's website: https://emmelineclein.net/Homepage


Dead Weight: Essays on Hunger and Harm: https://www.amazon.com/Dead-Weight-Essays-Hunger-Harm/dp/0593536908


Brattleboro Literary Festival: https://brattleborolitfest.org/




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There’s a thread that connects our inner lives to the culture we live in, and Unravelling pulls on it to see what emerges. This isn’t a lecture series, but a conversation guided by therapist Kurt White and journalist Mary Wilson, who bring their distinct perspectives to every discussion. They explore how mental health is woven into everything from our daily fitness routines and societal pressures to the art we consume and the relationships we keep. In each episode, you’ll hear from experts who study the mind alongside individuals sharing their personal, lived experiences, creating a dialogue that feels both intellectually rigorous and deeply human. The aim is to move beyond simple definitions, examining how anxiety, resilience, joy, and struggle shape our collective reality. Produced by Charts & Leisure, this podcast provides a space for nuance, challenging the idea that our psychological worlds exist in a vacuum. It’s for anyone who has ever felt the tension between their private thoughts and the public world, offering not easy answers but a more textured understanding. By listening, you become part of a broader exploration into how compassion, for ourselves and our society, can actually be built from a place of genuine curiosity.
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