Reflections on some dynamics of eating disorders: 'no entry' defences and foreign bodies

摘要

In the context of the treatment of eating disorders, the author describes a specific failure in the container/contained relationship (Bion, 1962) that goes beyond the experience of having projections rejected. She addresses the predicament of those patients who have not only lacked containment, but also perceived themselves as receptacles of unmetabo- lised phantasies and experiences projected into them by their parents. The author briefly refers to those patients who succeed in protecting themselves from this predicament by developing a 'no entry system of defences' that often includes anorexia.