Katharina:  Sexual Abuse and Anorexia/Bulimia

Register for this course

Text by Dr. Arthur Janov

Outline • Content Description • Overall Objective • Practical Outcome Objectives

Outline

1.  Possible dynamics between child and non-offending parent in incest

2.  Interview with Katharina: History of anorexia and bulimia

3.  Interview with Katharina: Katharina's feeling states in bulimic episodes

4.  Interview with Katharina: Access to profound terror associated with sexual abuse, through primal therapy

5.  Interview with Katharina: Current circumstances

6.  Lessons to be learned from Katharina
 

>> Top of page

Content Description

This course includes a transcript of an interview between a Primal Center staff member and an 18 year-old woman, Katharina, who had been sexually abused by her mother's boyfriend, and had also suffered from anorexia and bulimia. The interview covers Katharina's history and her experiences in primal therapy, including feelings and subsequent insights about relationships between the abuse she experienced and her anorexia and bulimia. The transcript is followed by commentary from Dr. Arthur Janov.
 

>> Top of page

Overall Objective

Illustrate the possibility of long-term, broad-reaching, and entrenched effects from sexual abuse or incest, through a detailed case study.  Communicate that neurotic symptoms derive from a person's history.  Convey that there is no blanket rule about what type of experience leads to what symptom, or that a given symptom necessarily implies a certain history.  Communicate that the meaning of a symptom is individual to a patient - while the symptom makes perfect sense given the person's history.
 

>> Top of page

Practical Outcome Objectives

1. The student will better understand the significance of history in cases of anorexia/bulimia.

2. The student will appreciate the systemic impact of early pain, including pain from sexual abuse.

3. The student will appreciate the use of "feeling feelings" in ameliorating neurosis.
 

>> Top of page