Anorexia nervosa as a defense against anaclitic depression

This paper atempts a developmental understanding of the anaclitic depression which frequently underlies anorexia nervosa. Familial lapses in transactional boundaries are viewed as leading to a maternal overinvolvement or unavailability during the practicing subphase of the separation-in-dividuation process. The future anorectic is consequently arrested at a sensorimotor level of self and object representations with no ability to evoke a representation of the object in its absence. Such individuals remain vulnerable to separation experiences and the sense of depression, loss, and helplessness which accompany these experiences. Much anorectic symptomology can then be looked at as a defense against such experiences and the potential loss of self-other boundaries which accompany them.