Eating disorders in girls

Some selected life patterns dating back through several generations in the families of girls with serious eating disorders are described, thereby making thought-provoking links with problematic eating behaviour. A relationship is established between those officially approved ascetic values and the secret yearning for pleasure insofar as the one stresses the importance of bonding, the other autonomy. The complex dilemma for affected girls arising from this value ambivalence in the growing-up process is made clear. In therapeutic practice, this means that all contradictory paternal and maternal values are to he kept in high esteem and low-key contact with them offered in the future. There would be no point in renouncing good two-way relations in families in the interest of others. A positively egotistical attitude to life would no longer be taboo. Therapeutics ideas play an important part through the provision of timing differences in the way care and healthy egotism are regarded.