The new volume “Coercive care, caring coercion. The role of coercion in eating disorder treatment” published by CNR Edizioni and edited by Giulia Sciolli, Researcher at CID Ethics, explores the relationship between coercion and care in the treatment of eating disorders, with particular attention to practical and ethical aspects.
Going beyond an analysis of coercion in its extreme form — compulsory treatment for the most severe cases of anorexia nervosa — the volume also considers the everyday forms that coercion can take during the various phases of illness and treatment.
The ultimate aim is to provide a tool to make the relationship between coercion and care less nebulous and less burdensome for all parties involved — patients, families, and healthcare professionals — who, albeit in different ways, find themselves constrained in treatment, as emphasized in Giulia Sciolli’s introduction:
“In the same way that, as many authors highlight, most patients with eating disorders «do not want to die; they just do not know how else to live», those who take care of patients — both clinicians and family members — do not want to be coercive; they just do not know how else to take care of them. They do not know how else to treat a disorder that every day threatens more forcefully to destroy the bodies and lives of patients as much as the basis of their ability to stay in relation with others, and therefore also the lives of those who are close to them.”
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