ABSTRACT
Psychosomatic illness constitutes a cry of despair and of hope, and may represent an unsuccessful attempt at a search for wholeness. When a psychosomatic disorder such as a severe eating disturbance manifests itself and could threaten the continuance of life, the pressure on the analyst to focus primarily on the symptom may become difficult to resist. A scanning of psychiatric literature on anorexia nervosa is a Herculean task. Anorexia nervosa occurs typically in girls in their later teens and in young unmarried women; it is doubtful if the same syndrome is found in men. Other psychosomatic disorders and psychosexual problems frequently accompany anorexia. In any encounter with the opposite sex, for instance, an overpowering craving for affection clashes with fear and revulsion. The anorexia patient attempts to become omnipotent and indestructible by over-eating, or else tries to do away with herself by starvation and shrinkage, in the hope of resurrection as the best loved.
