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The Psychological Basis of Anorexia Nervosa, Part II

© Mark Stuart Ellison

My teen years were consumed by my mother's illness. Living with my father after my parents divorced, I frequently commuted to unpleasant visits with her, often eating in hospital cafeterias, whether she was a patient or not. It was one of the few public places she felt comfortable. But even there, she would criticize the food, me, and everyone around her. Even then, I realized that it was her illness talking, not the "real" her, but it still made growing up a living hell.

ENDNOTES

1. Palazzoli, Mara Selvini. Self-Starvation: From Individual to Family Therapy in the Treatment of Anorexia Nervosa (New York: Jason Aronson 1985), p.230.

2. Palazzoli, p.39.

3. Heller, A.C., "Anorexia Update", Seventeen, Sept. 1986, p. 197.

4. Bruch, Hilde. The Golden Cage (Harvard University Press 1978), p. 115.

5. Byrne, Katherine. A Parent's Guide to Anorexia and Bulimia (New York: Henry Holt and Company 1989), pp. 48-49.

6. Ibid.

7. The Golden Cage, p. 51.

8. Chernin, Kim. The Hungry Self (New York: Random House 1985), pp.61-2.

9. Ibid.

10. Ibid., p.120.

11. Ibid., p.137.

12. Byrne, pp.106-7.

13. Byrne, p. xii.

14. Byrne, p.21.

15. Herzog, David B., M.D. and Copeland, Paul M., M.D., "Eating Disorders", New England Journal of Medicine Aug. 1, 1985, p.296.

16. Ibid.

17. Byrne, p.67.

18. Byrne, pp.12-13.

19. Byrne, p.19.

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