[The father's role and dysorexia]

Of all eating disorders it is widely acknowledged that dysrexia has increased; this syndrome appears most frequently to affect the more affluent socio-economic classes. This paper focuses on a single case from which more general conclusions are then drawn. After an earlier episode of bulimia, a girl suffering from anorexia was found to live in a family context in which the father provided a weak psychological reference point. He was often away on work during the girl's childhood and only takes part in the family life as the provider of material wellbeing without playing a direct affective or pedagogical role. A situation of this type represents a way of fulfilling family roles in today's society where ensuring the family's comfortable lifestyle acts as a substitute for the affective role which the parent is not able to sustain due to unresolved neurotic nuclei. Society can now augment certain forms of defence in view of efficiency and productivity which detract from a genuine personal evolution. This leads to the development of neuroses in the younger generation which the mental health services must identify and correct using new psychopedagogic proposals.