Alexithymia's concept in eating disorders: place and function

The presence of an alexithymic dimension in the addictive behaviours, espec ially in eating disorder behaviours, is nowadays well established, as attes ted bq epidemiological data, This dimension corresponds to an internal mech anism of protection towards representations of certains affects who risk of putting in danger the organisation of a fragile Ego. Alexithymia holds a central position corresponding to the essential depress ion of the psychosomatic school of Paris, at the outset of an operating way of functionning. Its origins are placed in the failures of the maternal ob ject in cathexing the psychic and somatic self of the infant. This theoretical option (on the economical and dynamical point of view) lea ds to predict, in case of regression to this central position, a vulnerabil ity to psychosomatic diseases, after a transitory addictive filling-in and perverse arrangements.