OBJECT IMAGES OF EATING DISORDER PATIENTS

The authors investigated images held by eating disorder patients towar d selected stimulus words using the semantic differential method. The concept ''object image'' was introduced here to designate the images w hich any person has about the mother, the father, etc. A comparison wa s made between 22 eating disorder patients with concurrent borderline personality disorder, 20 patients without borderline pathology, and 48 controls. The eating disorder patients were found to have a ''weaker' ' image of ''motherliness'' and ''womanliness'' compared to the contro l group. Another characteristic of eating disorder patients was their unfavorable image of children. The authors also studied the images hel d by fathers and mothers. In the families with borderline patients, th e discrepancies between what we term ''object images'' held by fathers , mothers, and daughters were conspicuous. The importance of a tripart ite (daughter-mother-father) relationship in the psychopathology of ea ting disorder is discussed.