Because some forms of self-starvation such as hunger striking are exempt from attributions of pathology, and due to incomplete understanding of its etiology, anorexia nervosa (AN) is and must presently be defined by psychological criteria as well as behavioral and bodily measures. Although opaque, typical motivational frames of mind in AN lack the apparent cognitive and volitional dysfunction usually indicating disorder. In contrast to other conditions that exhibit more evident dysfunction, this distinguishes AN from the perspective of medical epistemology: the opacity of AN motivation jeopardizing the epistemic warrant for assigning it to the category of a mental disorder (and so influencing decisions over diagnosis and recovery). This seems to invite non-medical approaches to its prevention and care.
Keywords: Anorexia nervosa; disorder; epistemology. hunger strikers; motivation; phenotype.