ABSTRACT
This chapter explores anorexia nervosa through an alchemical lens. Anorexia occupies one end of a spectrum of eating disorders with compulsive eating at the other extreme, and bulimia holding the ambivalent middle ground. It uses an alchemical perspective to attempt to understand that metaphor. The visual appearance of extreme anorexia is shocking, the image of walking skeletons deeply disturbing. Anorexia nervosa involves a denial of need and a vicious, ruthless, attack upon what needs to be nourished within. The image shouts of starvation: the body starves in a literal depiction of their inner regressed reality as a result of sadistic self control. In Psychology and Alchemy Jung explores a parallel between the work of the alchemists and psychological process of individuation. The metaphorical language of alchemy abounds with references to digestion by acid, vinegar, urine, sea-water; devouring and being devoured as a means of breaking down and facilitating the transition to a new state, generally involving the coming together of disparate parts.
