“Ghosts at the banquet” - Scholarly Commons Home

psychodynamic issues relate to the child’s lack of control and autonomy
(Wilson and Mintz, 1982), the absence of a soothing, calming parental
presence (Goodsitt, 1983) and early failures in empathic connectedness (Geist,
1989).
I hope by reviewing selected literature and research that I get a greater sense of
the integrity or wholeness that is compromised in the potential for health
within the anorexic client. I ask what, in psychotherapy supports this
translation and transformational process, to take a client from an inner void,
depersonalization and rigidity to a more cohesive experience, a greater sense
of self, agency and interrelatedness?
The introduction to this dissertation has briefly mapped some of the
complexities for working with the client with Anorexia Nervosa. The difficulty
in defining the disorder due to the puzzling aetiology and lack of
understanding around the pathophysiology of Anorexia Nervosa, and also the
changing scientific research which suggests the biological issues which
predetermine the vulnerability to the illness. Research is continuing to show a
causal role of starvation and premorbid features along with impaired ability to
seek or experience pleasure. Neuroscience and neuroimaging are continuing to
explore these correlations and to wonder about the ability of the brain to be
flexible in adaptation to these issues. Due to the complexity of the new
sciences, and the limitations of this dissertation, I am not going to review
literature related to neuroscience and biology other than to point to it as an
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