Aspects of perversion in anorexic/bulimic disorders

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Abstract
In this paper I have suggested that in the cases of anorexia and bulimia that I have treated there seems to be a sado-masochistic structure similar to that which I observed in the case of a transvestite. In the anorexic and bulimic behaviour there seemed to be an omnipotent and compulsive use of the body as a phallic object. This use of the body, through bulimia and vomiting, or in self-starvation, with its attendant loss of feminine characteristics such as breasts, rounded buttocks and menstruation, was related to phantasies about castration. Femininity was being denied while at the same time it was secretly preserved as an exciting phallic object. It is this characteristic that brings it close to the perverse acting out of the transvestite, who denied his masculinity while dressed as a woman, while at the same time preserving his excited and erect penis.

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