1503 - DISRUPTING EPISTEMIC VIOLENCE: EXPLORING HOW STORYTELLING AND ARTS-BASED METHODS CAN CONTRIBUTE TO SOCIAL JUSTICE IN EATING DISORDER RESEARCH AND TREATMENT

Session: D06S008 - Clinical Intervention 3
AUTHORS:
Costantini Sarah (University of Guelph ~ Guelph ~ Canada)
Abstract text:
Epistemic violence, the delegitimization of certain persons as knowers, runs through ED treatment. Epistemic authority is placed firmly in the hands of clinicians, typically under the assumption that individuals with EDs lack insight and are highly manipulative, and, in turn, cannot provide accurate accounts of their experiences and make appropriate decisions. Clinicians are given the power to step in, dictating the service users lives while in treatment. Moreover, evidence hierarchies in research further the epistemic violence of individuals with EDs. ED research, like many fields, tends to be dominated by evidence-based research and its "hierarchy of evidence," where randomized controlled trials and other quantitative methods—which flatten, reduce, quantify, and aggregate—hold position as the strongest sources of evidence, alongside the devaluation of alternative approaches that can expose complexities. However, numerous studies across general mental health and ED literature, indicate that service users experience the loss of agency and clinician's significant power as harmful, dehumanizing, and detrimental to recovery. This points to a need to disrupt epistemic violence and enhance epistemic justice for service users. To do so, requires responding in ways that construct, support, and give legitimacy to those whose knowledges have been denied in mental health contexts. I argue that one way to achieve epistemic justice is to alter research methodologies used in ED studies by integrating storytelling and art-based approaches. Unlike dominant ways of gathering and sharing knowledge in the ED field, by (1) generating an multitude of knowledges, (2) providing inclusive and flexible options for participation, (3) making space for affective dimensions, and (4) challenging sanism and stereotypes, these modalities enable generating alternative possibilities for care justice and epistemic justice in ED care contexts and research. This can open avenues to develop and implement alternative treatment options that meet the varied needs of individuals with EDs.