Anorexia nerviosa

Anorexia nervosa is a complex and confusing problem suffered by many women around the world (Franko, 1998). Traditional practice has viewed anorexia as a mental health and behavioral problem stemmingfrom a need to control one's body and environment, as well as a symptom of past abuse (Franko, 1998; Bell, 2006). Jungian psychologists theorize that anorexia may encompass all these things butperhaps involves a greater root issue (Woodman, 1980, 1982. Spignesi, 1983).

This issue revolves around the desire to escape from traditional gender roles, female sexual-objectification and the role ofMother as one that every female should take on. Women struggle to understand their desire to reject these roles and their frustration at being helpless to stop the sexual objectification of theirbodies (Calogero, 2005). The unconscious has revealed through dream analysis of anorexic patients that self-starvation may be an attempt to escape these constraints by becoming emaciated and therefore nolonger sexual or fertile (Brink et al. 1992. Woodman, 1980, 1982).

Using dream analysis and treatment methods exploring women's roles in the world may be a more effective way to treat patientswith anorexia (Knox, 2004). Behavioral therapies have not been entirely effective in helping anorexic women, as we still see a large number of women dealing with this after therapy (Franko, 1998). Manyanorexic women have reported feeling hopeless around this issue even when they manage to stop starving themselves because they are still plagued with thoughts and feelings related to starvation andsexual objectification (Calogero, 2005). Bringing Jungian forms of treatment into the mainstream through greater education and knowledge might assist many anorexic women in their healing journeys, aswell as provide researchers with a greater window into the internal world of anorexic women. As researchers work together to find effective ways to treat anorexia, perhaps taking these things into...