How Do I Feel When… A Card-Based Communication Game to Stimulate Empathy Among Family Members with Anorexia Nervosa

Abstract

Today, games play active roles in diverse stages of the treatment of various mental illnesses. Despite this favourable context, their use as tools in the treatment of anorexia nervosa is still quite unexplored. We are developing playful and gamified tools that can be used as instruments in the prevention, treatment and monitoring of this complex disease. The objective of this paper is to present the initial process of design and development of a card-based game called How do I feel when… Its purpose consists of stimulating empathy among family members of patients with anorexia nervosa. Play sessions are to be mediated by health professionals and are supposed to occur in the context of support and therapeutic groups for family members of people suffering from eating disorders or in clinical consultations. Preliminary tests and expert reviews showed that the game is effective in establishing free association of subjects in players’ reasonings, and in inciting the externalisation and sharing of players’ feelings. It also demonstrated that, because players usually read the cards in accordance to their life experience, the game is able to circumscribe and personalise the subjects to be discussed.