ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING'S "FAMILY DISEASE": ANOREXIA NERVOSA |
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Authors: | Carol R. Lewis |
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Affiliation: | Newark Beth Israel Medical Center |
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Abstract: | What was Elizabeth Barrett Browning's mysterious and variously diagnosed “disease”? This study reviews biographical material in the light of modern family systems theory and develops a hypothesis that Elizabeth Barrett lived with her family of origin in “anorectic transaction”, and that chronic anorexia nervosa was embedded in the Victorian poet's lifestyle. The characteristics of anorectic families: enmeshment, overprotection, rigidity, and lack of conflict resolution, are shown to have been abundantly present in Barrett family patterns. Robert Browning is compared with a family therapist whose interventions restructure a system and free the anorectic from her dysfunctional symptom. |
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