ABSTRACT
Untangling the meanings of the food refusal and helping the individual woman to develop a new and positive relationship to eating goes hand in hand with the exploration of ideas the woman has about her body-image, Consciously, the food refusal was first instigated as a way to cope with discomfort in her body. Commonly the unease arose from bodily desires she felt, her disgust at 'the fat', or the appearance of her first period before she was prepared for it, and so on. Obviously such issues are very important and will need to be taken up in the therapy in the process of helping her to eat again. But the resistance to engaging again in so-called normal eating behaviour is often subsumed by the twin fears of weight gain and 'going out of control'. These two fears exemplify the anorectic woman's relationship with her body. The body is experienced as an object that must be controlled or it will control The emaciated body demonstrates that she controls her body whereas the average-sized body controls her. There are but two options.
