If you didnt know, Freud created the psychodynamic approach and it is very controversial. Freud was the fist person to suggest we have an unconscious mind which influences our behaviour and also that we have drives within us, constantly in conflict, determining how we behave. It is controversial because of how strange and weird some of his theories are, for instance, that children go through psycho-sexual stages of development.
Repressed sexual impulses. Freud said that eating is a substitute for sexual expression and therefore, anorexia could be seen as a way to repress sexual urges. Psychologist Hilde Bruch suggested that anorexia is connected with psycho-sexual immaturity.
A suggestion is that woman have fantasies about impregnation and confuse fatness with pregnancy. They unconsciously believe that eating will lead to pregnancy and so starve themselves. I would just like to point out that this makes very little sense to me! I thought unconsciously we all wanted to carry on our genes and continue the race, therefore we would want to be pregnant on an unconscious level.
Another suggestion is that eating becomes linked to taking on an adult role, including an adult sexual role and so the women who cannot face this, will starve themselves to avoid it. So they can maintain childhood or regress to it. Bruch claims it has a mutual reward for both mothers and daughters. The mother may be over anxious about her daughter growing up, limiting her independence and keeping her child-like. For the daughter, her behaviour has enabled her to continue to be dependent on her mother. I have heard theories similar to these before, i didnt know that they were originated from the psychodynamic perspective for a long time though. I think it does make sense that a person may want to remain a child and not want to grow up, and it does seem like anorexia is a way to prevent this physically as it prevents puberty. However, i dont think this applies to me as i have always been desperate to grow up to fast! I also think that a mother could possibly want her daughter to remain 'her baby' and not grow up. However, my mother certainly want me to get out of this and i dont think she wants me to stay this way!
Sexual abuse and gender socialization. Psychotherapy studies indicate that eating disorders are associated with early experiences of sexual abuse. A large proportion of those studied had experienced this. However, i know i and many others have not been abused in this way, so this is not a necessary criteria.
Well i certainly have my doubts about these explanations, but maybe i am biased because i am inclined to reject Freud's theories just because i dont want to believe that humans are so weird.
Sophie x
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