Anorexia, psychoanalysis, and feminism: fantasy and reality
Sayers, J.
Journal of Adolescence 11(4): 361-371
1988
ISSN/ISBN: 0140-1971 PMID: 3235726 DOI: 10.1016/s0140-1971(88)80035-6Document Number: 384464
Two distinct trends inform current psychoanalytic and feminist approaches to anorexia: one focuses on its roots in the fantasy, the other in the reality of childhood and adolescent deprivation and abuse. In outlining these two approaches, this article shows how both increasingly attend to the place of the mother to the neglect of the father in the genesis of anorexia-a shift of perspective somewhat redressed by systemic family therapy.