Causes of Eating Disorders
In most cases, it is not one reason or one factor that leads to the development of an eating disorder, but rather a combination of genetic, socio-environmental, and family-psychological factors that work together on an individualז and in certain cases lead to the development of an eating disorder.
Socio-Cultural Factors
From the 1960s to the 1980s, eating disorders were considered to be influenced by Western social norms such as the ideal of slimness, the worship of youth, self-realization, individualism, and self-determination among women. Many factors have supported these claims, including different rates of eating disorders in different cultures (Western versus non-Western), different populations (men versus women), and a different internalization of social messages in girls who are likely to develop an eating disorder as opposed to healthy adolescents.
Contemporary theories view eating disorders as a result of modern culture cutting down geographical boundaries. Eating disorders appear to be the result of cultural changes that have taken place in a variety of fields, including socio-economic developments, changes in a woman’s role in society, cultural social emphasis on leanness and change in eating habits.
The relatively low prevalence of eating disorders in relation to the relatively high rate of women who report physical dissatisfaction and dieting, stress that the socio-cultural parameters have a limited effect on the development of an eating disorder.
Studies of a family history of patients with anorexia and bulimia show high rates of underweight or overweight among first-degree relatives. Studies of twins also support the decisive impact of genetic factors in the development of an eating disorder.
Eating disorders belong to the spectrum of psychosomatic disorders, in which there is a physical manifestation of some kind of pain, distress or mental need, which for one reason or another the person cannot otherwise express. In many cases, what cannot be articulated in words gets expressed through the body.
Besides the various theories, it seems that there is a significant connection between behavior patterns and the individual’s treatment of food, and behavior patterns and their regard of significant people in their lives.
Many agree that one of the main goals of the patients with eating disorders is an attempt to gain control. Unlike Broch, other researchers emphasized the attempt to control not only real life and a relationship with the mother, but also the world of introverted objects and the relationships between them.
The approach of self-psychology: Self-psychology views eating disorders as disorders of one’s self. The conceptualization of the disease and its cure is that anorexic and bulimic patients cannot rely on people to fulfil their need for selfobjects. Instead of turning to people, they turn to food to meet those needs. The anorexic patient draws her fulfilment for selfobjects from food, mainly through experiences of self-reflection. Her need for self-absence is met not by admiration or approval from other people, but by her inner conviction that she has supernatural powers that allow her to avoid eating. The sense of victory that accompanies the triumph of overcoming the natural need for food is accompanied by contentment and self-satisfaction. It attests to narcissistic pleasure which arises around the first narcissistic need that Kohut describes in approving a person’s sense of greatness by admiration. (Eitan Becher).
The bulimic patient is gratified by food for self-satisfaction, particularly through experiences of an ideal self. She experiences food as an all-powerful force. It provides calm, warmth, and security. It also regulates painful emotions such as insult, anger, shame, guilt, depression, or anxiety. Since the one with an eating disorder experiences food and its formalities as the primary source of self-fulfillment, she safeguards it with the same intensity that other people will cling to another person. Gudsit identifies in the anorexic patient an extreme manifestation of the inability to turn to humans to fulfil her self-satisfaction. She wants to act like she is a person without herself. To ensure this position, she tends to meet the needs of others, especially her parents. Her adherence to this position of meeting the needs of others is a barrier against others to meet her needs. The abolition of her independence is expressed in her disregard for her basic needs, such as food and a perception of a place in the world. Not taking up space to the point of almost total disappearance of her body is the most extreme manifestation of self-annulment.
