The article analyzes the basic principles, stages and objectives of psychosynthesis in the provision of medical and psychological care to patients with eating disorders (ED). It is noted that a patients' compliance with dietary recommendations is often impossible due to the low level of their self-awareness, reflection, volitional self-regulation and trauma of the individual, which is experienced as an unconscious psychological problem that requires urgent solution. Nutritionists are invited to provide professional assistance based on psychosynthesis in cooperation with a psychologist in order to optimize a holistic approach to the treatment of ED through the psychological support of the patient (client) directly during medical counseling. The basic methodology of psychosynthesis is presented through a theoretical analysis of the principles of polypsychism and self-determination, which are explained through the R. Assagioli`s idea of the psyche, the concept of unifying centers and the theory of subpersonalities. It has been suggested that food and eating behavior replace the subject's self-consciousness (“I”) and become unifying centers around which the whole personality is neurotized. It leads to the displacement of not only traumatic experience that caused the disorder itself, but also the unmet personal need satisfaction of which is often ignored in modern treatment practice. The authors developed the stages and tasks of psychosynthesis as its special methodology for working with ED and began to test it in the form of an individual care program in medical and psychological practice. Particular attention in highlighting the preliminary results of the implementation of their developments is paid to the development of patients' ability to perform a voluntary act, which permeates all stages of treatment by psychosynthesis and is aimed not only at the change of eating behavior but also at self-actualization of a personality. The article briefly presents a partial methodology of psychosynthesis, which includes techniques of disidentification, image transformation and construction of an ideal model.
Theoretical and methodological principles of psychosynthesis application in dealing with eating disorders
