Affordances of Food in Restrictive Eating Disorders

Affordances are most often discussed in terms of which ones exist and when and how they are enacted. It is less common to discuss the active non-enaction of an affordance and what consequences or functions this has. In this article we tie phenomenology and Ecological Psychology together to create an account of what role not enacting the affordance of edibility (i.e. not eating) plays in the context of restrictive eating disorders like anorexia nervosa. We propose that food affords eating on one end but on the non-enacting end that it has an anorectic possibility, and that the act of not eating fulfills a complex set of goals. Also, we conclude that an affordance-centered perspective with its interrelated dimensions of perceiving, acting, meaning, and values is ripe for exploring its use in therapeutic practice. Engaging in not eating is better conceptualized, not as a pathology, but as a tool or practice with its own incentives, meaning, and even salvation.