Discussions of anorexia tend to fall into the same tired trap: linking it to the pursuit of beauty and the craving for a thin, delicate body. But there is far more at stake, and Michela Marzano explains it firsthand.
The Italian-French philosopher lived for years in the grip of anorexia. She decided to recount her experience and the psychological struggles that fed it.
When Michela speaks of anorexia, she calls it a "symptom," not a "disease"—a symptom of her desperate hunger for her father's approval, her compulsion to be "good" in his eyes. A conviction that would drive her far beyond the limits of her own body. This is undeniably an intimate, raw text, one that will draw readers through the force of its voice and its modern, generous style.
Through her reflections, Michela reveals what lies behind the anorexic girl whom everyone judged, but few understood.
Matteo Cinti, 2012