Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Becoming needless: A psychoanalytically informed qualitative study exploring the interpersonal and intrapsychic experiences of longstanding anorexia nervosa

Becoming needless: A psychoanalytically informed qualitative study exploring the interpersonal... This study explored the interpersonal and intrapsychic experiences of individuals living with longstanding anorexia and considered how such experiences might influence barriers to recovery. Six women, aged between 22 and 44, were interviewed on three occasions using a psychoanalytically informed qualitative research design. Three interrelated themes emerged: “all on our own,” becoming needless and “nobody speaks your language.” Interpersonal experiences were characterized by abusive mistreatment, abandonment, and rejection, which, at times, seemed to be re‐enacted with acute health care staff, mental health professionals, and mental health services. Participants developed a conviction of being undeserving and fundamentally flawed, perhaps in a defensive attempt to establish a sense of control and survive these overwhelming experiences potentially operating as a self‐protective enclave. Ultimately, participants seemed to be describing, defending against the pain of relatedness by striving to have no needs. Participants seemed stuck in this state of self‐protection, hampering their ability to develop trust in the therapeutic relationship. Directions for future research and implications for psychotherapeutic work are also discussed. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies Wiley

Becoming needless: A psychoanalytically informed qualitative study exploring the interpersonal and intrapsychic experiences of longstanding anorexia nervosa

Download PDF
15 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/wiley/becoming-needless-a-psychoanalytically-informed-qualitative-study-lxX8VY9zT5

References (57)

Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
© 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
ISSN
1742-3341
eISSN
1556-9187
DOI
10.1002/aps.1679
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

This study explored the interpersonal and intrapsychic experiences of individuals living with longstanding anorexia and considered how such experiences might influence barriers to recovery. Six women, aged between 22 and 44, were interviewed on three occasions using a psychoanalytically informed qualitative research design. Three interrelated themes emerged: “all on our own,” becoming needless and “nobody speaks your language.” Interpersonal experiences were characterized by abusive mistreatment, abandonment, and rejection, which, at times, seemed to be re‐enacted with acute health care staff, mental health professionals, and mental health services. Participants developed a conviction of being undeserving and fundamentally flawed, perhaps in a defensive attempt to establish a sense of control and survive these overwhelming experiences potentially operating as a self‐protective enclave. Ultimately, participants seemed to be describing, defending against the pain of relatedness by striving to have no needs. Participants seemed stuck in this state of self‐protection, hampering their ability to develop trust in the therapeutic relationship. Directions for future research and implications for psychotherapeutic work are also discussed.

Journal

International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies – Wiley

Published: Dec 1, 2021

Keywords: barriers to recovery; interpersonal experiences; intrapsychic processes; longstanding anorexia; psychoanalytic interview; qualitative

There are no references for this article.