Assignment on Eating Disorders
Read ALL the slides on eating disorders first and answer the following:
· How do you understand the meaning of anorexia as “crystallization” of what´s wrong in the Western Culture? Think of “crystallization” of cultural values.
· What is alexithymia?
“I Used to Love Bread” (In the Therapist Chair by J. S. Gunn)
1. How is anorexia understood from a “relational psychodynamic perspective”?
2. Anorexia symptoms and consequences in L (also use the slides to check which symptoms and medical complication L suffered from)
3. Problematic areas in L´s life, besides the restricted eating?
4. All aspects of L´s relationship with her mother.
5. How did she behave in the therapy room?
6. What is the therapist´s hypothesis about the functions that food has in L´s life? (Remember – symptoms always have multiple functions)
7. What did the psychotherapy focus on? Goals? Which interventions the psychotherapist utilized?
3 chapters from Hunger for Connection by Alitta Kullman
1. How is bulimia understood within this particular psychoanalytic perspective?
2. What is the explanatory mechanism? When and how does it “all” usually begin?
3. What are the ways in which the author AK understands and explains binge and purge symptoms? What are the symptoms functions?
4. What are therapy goals within this perspective?
