LANGE, E. S. N. Jovens anoréticas e suas mães [Anorexic Young women and their mothers: a psychodynamic approach to a contemporary clinic]. 156 p. Doctoral Thesis – Instituto de Psicologia da USP, São Paulo (SP), 2005.
Abstract: this study investigated aspects of intrapsychic dynamic of patients diagnosed as restricting anorexia and describes aspects of intrapsychic dynamic of these patient’s mothers and the quality of relationship established between both. Therefore, a semi-structured interview and Drawing-of-Family-and-Story Procedure were used for three anorexic patients and their mothers. The basis achieved was clinically analyzed according to psychoanalytical approach. The results showed a supremacy of primitive defenses from early development, both in the patients and in their mothers. In the anorexic patients an excessive attempt to control the offensive impulses and the bad inner objects became evident, which could often be mistaken for obsessive-compulsive disorder. The relationship between mother and daughter showed itself to be excessively fragile and ambivalent. Feelings of envy from the daughters to their mothers were observed, and lack of continence from mothers to daughters, connoting the poverty of the relationship between both, as a reciprocal relation.