scholarly journals Theoretical and methodological principles of psychosynthesis application in dealing with eating disorders

HUMANITARIUM ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-115
Author(s):  
Yegor Kucherenko ◽  
Liubov Piven

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.

1994 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 355-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet L. Guss ◽  
Harry R. Kissilejf ◽  
B. Timothy Walsh ◽  
Michael J. Devlin

2017 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klaudia B. Ambroziak ◽  
Elena Azañón ◽  
Matthew R. Longo

AbstractBody image distortions are common in healthy individuals and a central aspect of serious clinical conditions, such as eating disorders. This commentary explores the potential implications of body image and its distortions for the insurance hypothesis. In particular, we speculate that body image may be an intervening variable mediating the relationship between perceived food scarcity and eating behavior.


1996 ◽  
Vol 17 (8) ◽  
pp. 279-283
Author(s):  
Kathi J. Kemper

Over the past 50 years, health care has grown more complex and specialized. Health-care institutions now are staffed with an array of specialist physicians, social workers, psychologists, therapists, and nutritionists as well as general practitioners and nurses. The types of providers outside of the hospital are even more numerous and diverse: physicians; nurses; nurse practitioners; chiropractors; counselors; acupuncturists; herbalists; spiritual healers; and purveyors of nutritional supplements, aromatherapy, crystals, and more. Intent on distinguishing their "products," providers focus on differences, polarizing into distinct camps such as "mainstream or traditional" versus "alternative or unconventional." Although these dichotomies are simple, they also can mislead. The definition of "alternative" is very dependent on the definition "mainstream"; acupuncture may be an alternative in one setting, but it clearly is traditional within Asian communities. Therapies that once were considered unconventional, such as hypnosis and meditation, have moved into many mainstream medical settings. (See Sugarman article "Hypnosis: Teaching Children Self-regulation" in the January 1996 issue of Pediatrics in Review.) The public wants health care that is low-cost, safe, effective, and personalized. Practitioners of "natural" therapies often are viewed as more humanistic and less technological than busy physicians. According to one study, in 1990, alternative medical therapies were used by nearly one third of Americans.1


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miriam Thye ◽  
Diethard Tauschel

Abstract Background:Medical studies place high demands on the development of learning capacities. Learning environment, self-regulation, self-determination and self-care play a major role in this context. Impaired health of students in particular has a negative impact on learning and subsequent professional life. Learning life can be defined as the sum of all the factors influencing the students’ entire life; this includes physical, physiological, psychological and mental dimensions of learning. This study describes and evaluates a longitudinal learning workshop for undergraduate medical students which aims to foster academic learning life with an anthropologically grounded holistic approach.Methods:Fifty evaluations by medical students underwent a qualitative analysis of open-ended questions concerning their experienced changes in their learning life. In addition, general satisfaction with the learning workshop was measured quantitatively.Results:Qualitative results revealed an impact on five core dimensions of medical students´ learning: knowledge, awareness, action, experience and regulation. Quantitative results demonstrated good overall satisfaction.Conclusions:Taking students’ physiology, body, psychology and mentality into account within a seven weeks longitudinal learning workshop, impact on the fields of knowledge, awareness, action, experience and regulation can be achieved. To support the multidimensional learning life of medical students, a holistic approach could be considered as an enhancement to foster healthy, meaningful and efficient ways of learning. Thus, this learning workshop seems to be a useful and transferable tool to support medical students’ learning.


Appetite ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 117 ◽  
pp. 284-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Ferrer-Garcia ◽  
Joana Pla-Sanjuanelo ◽  
Antonios Dakanalis ◽  
Ferran Vilalta-Abella ◽  
Giuseppe Riva ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ileana Schmalbach ◽  
Bjarne Schmalbach ◽  
Markus Zenger ◽  
Katja Petrowski ◽  
Manfred Beutel ◽  
...  

Psych ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 504-515
Author(s):  
Kato ◽  
Greimel ◽  
Hu ◽  
Müller-Gartner ◽  
Salchinger ◽  
...  

Background: Restrained, emotional, and external eating are related to obesity and eating disorders. A salutogenic model has confirmed sense of coherence (SOC) as a health resource that moderates stress and helps limit the occurrence of overweightness and eating disorders. This study aimed to examine the relationship between SOC, social support, stress, body image satisfaction (BIS) and eating behaviors in different cultural environments. Methods: A total of 371 Austrian (161 men, 210 women) and 398 Japanese (226 men, 172 women) university students participated. The SOC-13 scale, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire, BMI-Based Silhouette Matching Test and an analogue single-stress item were used as measurements. Results: SOC negatively affected all three types of eating in Austrian students (men: β = −0.227 to −0.215; women: β = −0.262 to −0.214). In Japanese students, SOC negatively affected external eating in both sexes (men: β = −0.150; women: β = −0.198) and emotional eating (β = −0.187) in men. BIS indicated that the desire to become slim predicted restrained eating, women’s emotional eating, and men’s and Austrian women’s external eating. Stress was only predictive of emotional eating in Japanese men. Conclusions: This study found that SOC, BIS and stress might be valuable factors regulating eating behavior in a cultural context. However, the relationship between SOC, BIS, stress and eating behavior differs between cultures.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document