Transcript Eating Disorders

Psychodynamic explanation
– Psychological disorders are a manifestation of
repressed emotional problems
– The symptoms of eating disorders symbolise
repressed conflicts and motives in the
unconscious mind
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Eating Disorders
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Anorexia Nervosa
Conscious
Refusal to eat
Desire to be thin
A prepubescent body
Lack of menstruation
Unconscious
Desire to remain a child
Fear of sex & adult
sexuality
Traumatic sexual
experience in
childhood?
Conscious
Overly
controlling
parents
Uncontrollable
desire to eat
Guilt and
anxiety
Purging
behaviours
Weak and fragile
ego can only
control the id
temporarily
Superego
punishes the
ego for not
controlling the id
Reduction of
guilt and
anxiety
Unconscious Id’s desire for
gratification
(physical)
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Bulimia Nervosa
Survey of 1099 American women
– Sexual experiences during childhood
– Eating disorder symptoms
Women with a history of sexual abuse had
elevated risk of ED symptoms
Some issues surrounding retrospective
data, but has been confirmed in other
studies
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Wonderlich et al (1996)
General criticisms:
– Some support, mainly from studies of women
abused in childhood
– However, not all abuse survivors develop
EDs, and not all ED sufferers have been
abused
– Many aspects difficult to test e.g. unconscious
motives, repressed memories etc.
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Eating Disorders