ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the theory and practice of the systematised application of the discontinuous neural emotional processing model of eating disorders –ILET – and lies at the heart of this book.
The key to this new treatment is to monitor and follow the shift in language, following an emotional danger signal, from symbolic/metaphoric to the concrete and then to return or re-inflate the language to its symbolic meaning, enabling the patient to ‘bring to mind’ in language the ‘lost in the body’ thoughts. Once restored to symbolic thinking, patients can be enabled to find alternative or flexible workable solutions to emotionally challenging problems that appear to the patient to be concrete bodily problems. This, in turn, helps patients to develop a strong sense of self and promotes symbolic emotional processing, which protects against any future emotional shocks resulting in eating disorder behaviour.
