The Choice: Embrace the Possible

Eger recalls the story of an anorexia patient named Emma. Because home environment usually plays a key role in a patient’s eating disorder, Edie also meets with her parents individually. Each parent takes control over their family differently: The father asserts dominance, and the mother actively manipulates situations to avoid conflict with the father—her own way of manufacturing a delicate peace. Eger compares Emma’s physical condition to her own body post-liberation. Edie guides her toward identifying her true desire—freedom—and asking how her eating habits help her achieve that goal. Both parents and Emma meet with Edie together, and they create a new contract with revised rules under which they will operate. Essentially, the document challenges family members to relinquish control to someone else. Two years later, Emma graduates from the outpatient eating disorder clinic with a healthy body and reasons to live.

Agnes, a woman in remission from breast cancer, approaches Edie with a simple question: “How do you know if there’s something you’re holding onto?” (191). Agnes doesn’t want to be a burden to her family, and she wants people to remember her as a good person. Edie reminds her that feeling anger doesn’t make her a bad person, and she leads Agnes through a self-nurturing exercise.