ABSTRACT
Chapter One, reaching for connection, sets the stage by way of the author’s interaction with a new patient. Following the patient’s narrative, we get a sense of the history and underlying psychodynamics of a binge/purge eating disorder and the distressed thinking that accompanies its enactments. Recognizing that the patient had received treatment that had ‘re-covered’ (up) these dynamics, but had left her without the ‘thinking’ tools she needed for understanding and overcoming her eating disorder, the author shares her perspective that every enactment of an eating disorder conveys a profound message, that its aim is to help, rather than hurt oneself or others, and that it can be understood as the body’s attempt at managing thoughts and feelings the mind cannot contain.
