A psychodynamic hypothesis on the night eating syndrome
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Updated: Oct 15, 2026

Control of Eating Behavior Using a Novel Feedback System
Published on: May 8, 2018
1Servizio Speciale di Psichiatria e Psicoterapia, Università La Sapienza, Roma.
Abstract:
The Night Eating Syndrome (NES) is usually interpreted in organicistic and physiological terms. This paper looks at it dynamically in terms of the psychic dimension of the patient through an examination of the contrasting tensions (emptiness and fullness; saving and destroying the object, etc.) that are the unconscious cause of his NES. A relationship is suggested between nocturnal reawakenings as a form of eating behaviour and the undreamt or avoided dreams used by the patient as a defence against "perception" of the unconscious.
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