The transformation of the internal dead mother into the internal living mother in the psychoanalytic psychotherapy of anorexia nervosa.
The aim of this study is to show the central role of the concept of the dead mother in the psychic process of anorexia nervosa, and the dead mother's transformation into the living mother by means of the use of the therapist in a successful psychoanalytic psychotherapy process. This psychoanalytic psychotherapy approach to anorexia nervosa is especially useful when patients are young, because even though they are often unstable and not yet mature, they are at the same time open to positive psychic changes in their personality structure--as the clinical case shows. The resurrection of the internal dead mother into the internal living mother, by means of the object usage of the therapist in the described therapy process, brought about the anorectic patient's recovery from a "dead swan" to a young "living swan."
Keinänen
Matti
M
Finnish Student Health Service, Kirkkotie 13, Fin-20540 Turku, Finland. matti.keinanen@pp.fimnet.fi
D000328:Adult; D000856:Anorexia Nervosa / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008425:Maternal Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000379:methods*