PERSONALITY IN ANOREXIA-NERVOSA - AN UPDATE AND A THEORETICAL INTEGRATION

No single cause is likely to be of supreme importance in the etiology of Anorexia nervosa, but personality factors continue to attract resea rchers' attention. This paper is a review of evidence on the subject, covering psychometric, interview, and projective investigations. Signi ficant methodological problems exist in the literature, but do not suf fice to explain findings of obsessive and inhibited features intermixe d with impulsivity, and a high prevalence of defined personality disor ders. Adding to previous work by Cloninger and Strober we suggest that vulnerable individuals are temperamentally incapable of coping with t he challenges of adolescence by anything other than repetitive, reward seeking behavior. In a social environment that greatly emphasizes thi nness as a criterion for self-worth and success, the outcome may be An orexia nervosa.