BROADCASTS.com

A growing number of philosophers are recognizing the value of  psychoanalysis in enriching our understanding of rational psychic  integration\u2014a central task within the Platonic-Aristotelian ethical  tradition. Here, I join their ranks by proposing that ancient Greek  ethical concepts and Freudian psychoanalytic insights may be jointly  applied to conceptualize the psychiatric illness anorexia nervosa as an ethical disorder, and to suggest a means of treating it as such.
\n
\nDrawing  from the Stoic theory of the emotions, as well as Aristotelian virtue  ethics, I identify the anorexic\u2019s characteristic fear of gaining weight  and pleasure at losing weight as symptoms of an excessively rigid  understanding of virtue and vice\u2014one constitutive of a false conception  of eudaemonia. After describing strengths and weaknesses of  this particular characterization of the disorder, I argue that Freudian  psychodynamic theory enriches this psycho-ethical portrait by  illuminating how unconscious wishes mediate communication between the  rational and non-rational parts of the soul. These psychodynamic  relations yield a disordered understanding of eudaemonia that  is maintained, reinforced, and shielded from self-conscious criticism  through a kind of \u2018ersatz reason\u2019, or a logical structure masquerading  as reason. 
\n
\nI conclude by suggesting psychoanalytic talk-therapy  may function as a kind of Socratic dialogue that helps anorexics  perceive and give voice to their true unconscious fears and basic  desires\u2014such as love, success, respect, and self-esteem. In so doing,  psychoanalysis may help anorexics achieve a central task Aristotle  attributes to ethical life: training the non-rational soul to \u2018speak  with the same voice\u2019 as the rational soul.