Ashley Fay

Psych 100 Section 003

Blog 1 – Psychoanalysis

One of the five major roots of psychology is psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis was discovered in the 1900’s and involved looking into the early mind. The belief was that childhood experiences had the potential to greatly influence the development of later personality traits and psychological problems. It emphasized the unconscious conflict and past events, primarily dealing with early childhood traumas.

Sigmund Freud was the founder of psychoanalysis; emphasizing the importance and impact that the unconscious minds can impart on one’s behavior. He believed that individuals could be cured with the release of their unconscious thoughts. Moreover, this meant to simply have people release their repressed emotions and experiences. This aspect of the psychology is commonly utilized to help people suffering from depression and anxiety disorders.

I decided to apply this principle to the topic of eating disorders. According to the National Eating Disorders Association, there are millions of women and men suffering from bulimia and anorexia nervosa in the United States alone. There are a multitude of reasons to potentially explain for the adoption of eating disorders varying from genetics to psychological factors (i.e. the longing for desire or love).

Patients diagnosed with eating disorders tend to be subverted, longing for connection with other in the world surrounding them. However, they fell trapped between the world of food and the real world. For instance, a girl could want to go to dinner with a few of her close friends to grab a bite to eat and catch up with each other; yet, all the girl can think about is the inner battle with herself to lift the fork up to her mouth. It can be mentally exhausting! By the time she builds up the courage to take a morsel of what is on her plate or even enjoys the taste of the food, she is already overcome with disgust, worry, and shame. Instead of focusing on the idea that she built the courage to “beat her eating disorder” in order to fuel her body, she is overcome with shame that the tiny morsel of food is going to make her “blow up like a balloon.” This distorted perception leads to a greater loss of confidence and emergence of insecurity in one’s self, which are two major difficulties that eating disorders patients continually battle with day in and day out.

Perception deals with the manner of how we choose to select, organize, and interpret our sensations. It’s interesting that these individuals are so focused on the illogical, impossible and unattainable goal of perfection, rather than living their lives and trying to enjoy the time they have with family and friends to nurture relationships, as well as feel loved, accepted, and admired. Sometimes friends, families, or even co-workers can make thoughtless comments regarding a girl’s weight, body composition, the “fitting” of their clothes, or their food of choice. This can be triggering to the eating disorder patient, leading them to fall into a spiral of inner turmoil that then are too ashamed to admit or voice. It is almost as if they don’t want to believe anything is wrong, so they bottle up and repress all their worries within their unconscious. They essentially use the world of food as a both a distraction from reality and a way to gain a sense of control, even when everything in the real world may not be “falling apart.”

Another instance involves a patient who believed that something was wrong with her, which surfaced at the age of 6 when her mother admitted her to “Weight Watchers” program because of a concern that the child was carrying excess weight. At her young age, the patient wasn’t aware of what truly was going on; only that there was a multitude of attention directed towards her from all the elderly and over-weight participants. This gave her the message that “as long as there is something wrong with me I will be loved and cared for.” This example relates to Freud’s emphasis that childhood experiences and emotions have tremendous influence on the molding of our unconscious mind.