Eating Disorders and Mentalization: High Reflective Functioning in Patients with Bulimia Nervosa

Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association
Signe Holm PedersenSusanne Lunn

Abstract

The theory of mentalization has recently been applied in the area of eating disorders (Skårderud 2012). This article reports a qualitative study based on interviews with five women suffering from bulimia nervosa. All five scored high on the Reflective Functioning Scale, indicating a highly developed ability to mentalize. The present qualitative study, which focuses on the women's capacity to relate to and regulate affects, supports the finding that they are relatively skilled at reflecting on their own and others' thoughts and emotions. However, this highly developed capacity for mentalization is apparently not helping them regulate their emotions. This suggests that the capacity to mentalize may not be as closely related to the capacity to regulate affects as Fonagy et al. (2002) have proposed. Indeed, the concept of mentalization may be overinclusive and in need of stricter definition. Thus, it might be envisaged that while the ability to mentalize is closely related to the ability to put feelings into words (the opposite of alexithymia), an ability to mentalize may not necessarily entail a capacity to regulate affects. Finally, the study illustrates that far from all eating-disordered patients have problems mentalizing.

References

Apr 3, 2001·The American Journal of Psychiatry·D L SaferW S Agras
Feb 14, 2006·Journal of Clinical Psychology·Peter Fonagy, Anthony W Bateman
Mar 16, 2007·Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association·Marie RuddenElizabeth Graf
Jun 6, 2008·The International Journal of Eating Disorders·Stephen A WonderlichHeather K Simonich
Oct 23, 2008·Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice·Mary Mitchell, Katherine Allen
Apr 1, 2006·Psychotherapy·Roger Karlsson, Amy Kermott
Feb 4, 2012·European Eating Disorders Review : the Journal of the Eating Disorders Association·Signe Holm PedersenStig Poulsen
Nov 28, 2013·The American Journal of Psychiatry·Stig PoulsenChristopher G Fairburn
Oct 30, 2014·The International Journal of Psycho-analysis·Signe Holm PedersenSusanne Lunn

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Citations

Sep 8, 2015·Comprehensive Psychiatry·Birgit Bork MathiesenSusanne Lunn
Oct 9, 2016·Eating Behaviors·Elizabeth ClaydonMegan V Smith
Jan 1, 2020·Journal of Behavioral Addictions·Giovanna NigroMarina Cosenza
Dec 18, 2020·Frontiers in Psychology·Giulia GagliardiniAntonello Colli
Oct 14, 2018·Addictive Behaviors·Marina CosenzaGiovanna Nigro

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
cognitive behavioral therapy

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