Running man

Abstract

This article is an autoethnography which explores the author’s experiences of anorexia, excessive exercising and psychosis, and links the starvation of the body to the repression of traumatic memory. The author suggests that the shaping of the body through self‐denial or self‐discipline is analogous to the processes whereby we shape identity through the narrative management of memory. Drawing on theoretical ideas from Judith Butler, the piece highlights the centrality of form in communicating experiences which challenge rational ways of understanding. The author suggests that it may sometimes be necessary to move outside the limits of conventional academic (and narrative) writing in order to adequately signify such experiences, while also demonstrating that creative, artistic modes of expression can produce findings and insights not readily discoverable via more conventional research methods.