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The body holds relevance for psychology. The body is the basis, always in the background of our experiences, our states of mind, and therefore always in the background of psychopathological conditions.

A better understanding of the body's significance is a first starting point. A main argument made in the thesis is that if we sincerely want to understand psychopathological states we need some basic knowledge of what having and being a body entails, and how foundational this experience is.

Sensuousness and perception are key to understanding the body. But perceptual and sensual experiences can be difficult to formulate in words and in a way that is intelligible. By taking this difficulty into account, and by using tact and sensibility when describing and researching the body in psychology, it is possible to develop knowledge of psychopathological states that affect embodiment and how we move about in the world. The point is that a conscious handling of the body is required when we research so that the experiential aspects of embodiment are not lost or reduced.
Another argument developed in the thesis is that the experience of the body contains more aspects than those captured in studies of body image, i.e. studies on how satisfied or dissatisfied a person or a group of individuals are with their body. Since empirical studies on disordered eating have mainly investigated body dissatisfaction, the picture is somewhat blurred when it comes to the experience of the extensive bodily changes that teenagers go through during and after puberty. Are there other aspects of what it means to be and live with the body that we have forgotten? And is measured body dissatisfaction really the most useful tool for understanding disordered eating in adolescence?

The contribution to the field is a validated questionnaire with the aim of measuring experiences of embodiment adapted for adolescents; a new theory of how seemingly different aspects of bodily experiences are synthesised and how this is a prerequisite for embodiment, and finally; a phenomenological account of aspects of anorexia nervosa that describes a state called hunter mode. In hunter mode, the mind is in crystal clear presence and readiness, it is a state of intense, intoxicating experiencing, and where embodiment is reanimated.

The studies constitute an invitation to more research in psychology that includes the body. By grounding our psychological studies in the body or embodiment, one can find answers of a different kind than would be possible if the body is omitted.