The internal ‘anorexic voice’: a feature or fallacy of eating disorders?

ABSTRACT

Poor treatment outcomes have fuelled calls for the development of novel maintenance models of anorexia nervosa. Experiences of an internal ‘anorexic voice' are often reported in eating disorders but remain little understood. This article reviews anorexic voice research and examines how these experiences may be implicated in the persistence of eating pathology. Criticisms of the anorexic voice are then debated on both empirical and theoretical grounds. Frameworks for understanding the anorexic voice and guiding future research are lastly discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Anorexia nervosa
• anorexic voice
• eating disorders
• hearing voices

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Professor Glenn Waller and Dr Ken Goss for their comments on an earlier draft of this paper.