פרופ' רחל בכנר

פסיכולוגיה קלינית

בניין 7, חדר 10
טלפון: 09-8983818
דוא"ל: rachelb@ruppin.ac.il
פרופ' רחל בכנר - עמוד חוקרת​

My research career began in a genetics laboratory where I was responsible for assessing the 
broad range of intriguing personality traits, behaviors, abilities, talents and disorders studied there. I chose to write my doctoral thesis on personality and genetic factors associated with anorexia nervosa (AN), and eating disorders have become the major focus of my clinical and research work.
Genetic studies have highlighted the role, for example, of insulin-like growth factor 2the arginine vasopressin 1a receptor, and the dopamine D4 receptor in eating behavior. 
AN is also associated with a specific personality profile. A personality characteristic of interest to me in relation to eating disorders is selflessness, or the tendency to ignore one’s own needs and interests and serve others. A related personality correlate of AN I identified and wrote about is concern for appropriateness, and I have written a book chapter on the relevance of the recent concept of “Pathological Altruism” to AN.
Athletes and dancers have often been reported in the literature as being at risk for eating pathology and as sharing personality characteristics of people with AN. Yet in an examination of eating-related variables in Israeli athletes and dancers, I failed to find similarities between this group and non-athletes. The finding that dancers tended to report a history of and Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified nevertheless led me to wonder about the postulated diagnostic entity of "anorexia athletica", which I would like to examine further in research.
The definition and process of recovery from eating disorders interest me. How should “full recovery” be defined? What proportion of women with AN fully recover? Do any symptoms or underlying personality features linger after recovery? When two different sets of criteria to assess recovery were used, they had very different consequences. Beyond recovery lie growth and thriving, which lie at the heart of a new field of interest: positive psychology. I believe this field can be richly explored in relation to body image and attitudes towards eating and weight. 
Finally, psychological, historical, clinical and social aspects of hypnosis and hypnotic susceptibility are also of interest to me. 

I enjoy supervising research on eating attitudes, eating disorders, and body image, but also do my best to enable and support a wide range of other subjects that students initiate and make happen. ​