ABSTRACT
“Weakness”, that needing to turn to someone means becoming an abject wretch whom everyone will despise. Psychoanalytic psychotherapy and all the many interventions based on psychoanalysis fundamentally challenge that position. This chapter discusses the way in which anorexic patients in particular appear to fear being intruded upon in much the same way as patients who have been abused. It suggests that this fear of intrusion is linked with a very intrusive object in the mind of the patient. The chapter suggests that this intrusive object is linked with the patient’s own intrusiveness, particularly with regard to the relationship between the parents. The existence of this intrusive object has very important and far-reaching implications for the treatment of the patients. The analytic setting does not allow us to act as nurse or physician to the patient, and it is sometimes argued that psychotherapy is unsafe as it cannot provide its own medical backup.
