THE ANOREXIC MIND

Summary — English:

Lawrence explores anorexia nervosa from a psychoanalytic perspective, focusing on the meaning of starvation and the anorexic patient’s relationship with the body. She examines how food refusal can function as a form of communication and as an attempt to manage unbearable emotional states. The anorexic mind is often organized around control, perfection, self-denial, and difficulties in recognizing and expressing dependency and need. The body may become the central arena in which conflicts about autonomy, attachment, sexuality, and identity are enacted. The clinical challenge is to understand the psychological function of anorexic symptoms while developing a relationship in which dependency and emotional experience can gradually become more tolerable.