ABSTRACT
The theory of incohesion: massification/aggregation offers a rich and fertile context within which to understand the phenomena, and in ways which shed helpful light on many other phenomena that can be observed in institutions treating young people with severe eating disorders. Authors such as S. Minuchin have hypothesized that there is a common theme in the structure of the families of eating disordered patients, characterized by patterns of enmeshment, over-protectiveness, rigidity, and lack of conflict resolution. The chapter argues that the study of trauma in anorexic patients, as there is evidence of a particular sensitivity and vulnerability to stressful events that would be far less disturbing to a more robust character. Young people who are more susceptible to wounds are in fact predisposed to developing anorexia nervosa. The chapter shows that teenagers with anorexia nervosa are very often, if not always, profoundly traumatized, but more usually by their exquisitely sensitive response to ordinary everyday stresses and strains.
