Masculinities and Mental Health Eating Disorders in Men’s Lived Experience and Contemporary Discourse

Introduction

CHAPTER ONE: Masculinities, Mental Health, and Men’s Eating Disorders

PART 1: Masculinities and Health 

PART 2: Men and Eating Disorders

CHAPTER TWO: Sites of Masculinities and Eating Disorders: Sport and Sexuality

Part 1: Sport 

Part 2: Sexuality 

Chapter THREE: New Frames for Lived-Experience Narratives

Part 1: Other Ways of Telling: Beyond Written Narratives 

Part 2: ‘Lines That Tell Stories: Men, Eating Disorders, and More’ 

Conclusion

Biography

Heike Bartel (PhD; she/her; lead author) is Professor of German Studies and Health Humanities at the University of Nottingham, UK. Her particular field of interest is exploring the potential of the arts to inform and shape healthcare and to lead to better health and well-being. Her background is in literary and gender studies and she works in teams across disciplines including clinicians, patient experts, trauma survivors, and artists to co-create health interventions using autobiographical writing, animated film, visual art, video poems, rap music, and other media. Her ongoing work on eating disorders focuses on boys and men, and she has published widely in the field.

James Downs (MEd [Cantab]; he/him) is a lived experience researcher, writer, and advocate, whose work focuses on the intersections of embodiment, mental health, and epistemic justice. Drawing on over two decades of personal experience with eating disorders and related health conditions, he works across research, policy, and clinical practice to centre lived experience as a critical form of expertise. He has contributed to national and international work on co-production in research, often with a particular focus on eating disorders in men and other marginalized groups. Alongside his advocacy, James is a highly experienced musician, qualified psychological therapist, yoga and dance teacher, and community arts facilitator. His work engages deeply with questions of masculinity, sexuality, and neurodivergence in shaping experiences of the body and mental health. 

Georgios Paslakis (Dr. med.; he/him) is Professor for Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy at the Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany, and involved in both clinical treatments of individuals with eating disorders as well as research, with a special focus on men with eating disorders. He also works in teams across disciplines examining the impact of gender roles and normative masculinities on mental health in general and eating disorders specifically. He has authored numerous publications on the subject.

"Bartel, Downs and Paslakis – all of whom I have had the pleasure of working with – have crafted a thoroughly informative read. Through a host of personal testimonies, Masculinities and Mental Health: Eating Disorders in Men’s Lived Experience and Contemporary Discourse seeks to assuage the dearth of male eating disorder insights. It traverses several topics: from the issues that lie at the intersection of sport and sexuality, to the creative potential within the arts to conceive fresh devices to intervene in male treatment. This is a potent piece of work which deserves to be read widely."

 --Dr Chukwuemeka Nwuba, Co-Founder of Club Majority, Psychiatry Doctor, and Editor of ‘Eating Disorders Don't Discriminate’