Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book describes a conceptual gap in the understanding of eating disorders and a lack of a unified theory. It explains a new conceptual framework to understand the development of symbolisation from a developmental neuropsychoanalytic perspective in the genesis of an eating disorder. The book discusses the importance of maternal preoccupation in relation to right-hemisphere function. It explores new model of the mind for eating disorders and subsequent diagnosis of an eating disorder. The book also discusses the nature and content of what constitutes a complex psychological trigger and how the figurative/metaphoric content of this emotional trigger degrades as it collapses towards concrete functioning. The neural networks described in internal language enhancement therapy are necessarily schematic but are based on well accepted research in emotional processing.