The idea for this interdisciplinary volume was born from the urgent need to examine the role of ‘coercion’ in the treatment of eating disorders, with particular attention to practical and ethical aspects. The volume aims to go beyond an analysis of coercion in its extreme form — compulsory treatment for the most severe cases of anorexia nervosa — and to consider also the everyday forms that coercion can take during the various phases of illness and treatment. The ultimate goal is to provide a tool to make the relationship between care and coercion less nebulous and less burdensome for all parties involved: patients, families, and healthcare professionals. Various aspects and degrees of coercion indeed characterize treatment pathways for all kinds of eating disorders, beyond the most extreme cases and even in instances of ‘voluntary’ admission to residential facilities. In all these cases too, the very ‘nature’ of eating disorders means that treatment requires daily care practices that are experienced by patients — and not only by them — as coercive.

The editor hopes that bringing together different voices from biomedicine, the psychological sciences, socio-cultural anthropology, philosophy, bioethics, and biolaw will help highlight the complexities of the relationship between care and coercion, not only in moments when immediate decisions must be taken on life or death issues, but also in the daily care practices that aim to prevent such extreme situations. The volume thus seeks to offer an inter- and transdisciplinary perspective, as is characteristic of the research tradition of the Interdepartmental Center for Research Ethics and Integrity at the CNR.

Published by Cnr Edizioni