Home > biographies and publications > marion gillie publications > shame and bulimia – a sickness of the soul

 

Shame and bulimia – a sickness of the soul

by Marion Gillie
Paper published in the British Gestalt Journal, 2000. Volume 9, No 2, pp98–104

Abstract

Where shame plays a central role, as it does in eating disorders, Kaufman (1989) believes that ‘accepted theories and methods of treatment have largely failed’. In this paper I argue that it is likely that the bulimic client has experienced insufficient support in the filed for important needs, and consequently, has experienced a significant rupture in the intersubjective field. Bulimic behaviour is their creative adjustment to their current environment, the client’s way of managing ‘unacceptable’ feelings and needs. I conclude that it is essential that the therapist understands the dynamics of shame and knows how to work with the client’s shame response in a way that enables the bulimic client to reveal the hidden (messy) part of herself. In this paper I offer an overview of the current thinking on shame from a Gestalt perspective and relate this to the clinical practice or working with bulimic clients, drawing on real case material to illustrate the implications for clinical practice.