The Hunger Plays: Theater of the Void: A Psychotherapeutic Journey with an Anorexic Toddler

This article details the encounter and psychotherapy of a very young child (aged 21 to 30 months) with eating disorders, stemming from an early experience of abuse. The authors delineate the child’s history, its structural and symptomatic consequences, and the proposed psychotherapeutic interventions. These elements underscore an “anorexic” issue, a term that allows us to reframe the relational dynamics of the symptom as an address to the Other. The case study examines the therapeutic process through symbolic play and drawings, reflecting the child’s struggle with separation anxiety and early trauma. The treatment’s progression illustrates the gradual establishment of a containing environment, fostering the emergence of transitional phenomena and the reintegration of the child’s psychic functioning.