@article{ref1,
title="From fetish object to transitional object: the analysis of a chronically self-mutilating bulimic patient",
journal="Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry",
year="2008",
author="Sloate, Phyllis L.",
volume="36",
number="1",
pages="69-88",
abstract="This paper challenges the view that food, or the patient's own body, functions as a transitional object for bulimics during the binge-purge cycle or symptomatic equivalents of self-harm. The author proposes that the bulimic patient's actions in and on her body more closely approximate the use of a fetish, which temporarily enhances a deficient and unstable body image and assuages separation anxiety, but does not promote progressive development. To illustrate these distinctions, the author presents an analysis of a self-mutilating bulimic patient who used her body as a fetish until a more integrated &quot;me&quot; evolved within the &quot;shared skin&quot; of her treatment. At that point, a transitional object and an idealizing selfobject fantasy were created, and the patient was able to engage the question of &quot;not me,&quot; relinquish her self-mutilation, and resume the process of separation and growth.<p /><p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1546-0371",
doi="10.1521/jaap.2008.36.1.69",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1521/jaap.2008.36.1.69"
}