ABSTRACT
Chapter Five, mind on a merry-go-round, outlines the perseverant personality organization, defining it as a “solitary and circular mode of being, thinking, and relating that is organized around a sustained physical and emotional reliance on the feeding as a means of thought processing and emotional regulation.” People with perseverant personalities share consistent and predictable thought patterns, belief systems, fears, self-talk, and/or emotional enactments that are as intricately interwoven with each other as they are with the physical enactments of their eating disorders. The chapter differentiates the perseverant personality from other personality organizations and distinguishes between what I call “restrictor” disorders (e.g., anorexia) and “perseverant” binge/purge disorders (e.g., bulimia). Citing its early etiology and consistent criteria, the chapter illuminates how the perseverant personality pre-dates, creates vulnerability for, and eventually co-exists with other, later-developing, psychological conditions—shedding light on why cyclical eating disorders are so frequently seen across the diagnostic spectrum and are so frequently misdiagnosed. A clinical illustration previews the ways in which the elements of the perseverant personality—each highlighted in subsequent chapters—work together to become organized into this unique body/mind personality organization.
