Sense of ineffectiveness in women with eating disorders: A clinical study of anorexia nervosa and bulimia

Abstract

In the present study, equal numbers of patients with anorexia nervosa and bulimiawere compared with noneating-disordered control subjects on the Block Ego Control Scale, Adjective Check List Autonomy Scale, and Embedded Figures Test. The anorexics displayed significantly greater ridigity of control than the noneating-disordered subjects, whereas the bulimics could not be distinguished from either of the other two groups on this dimension. Although there were no group differences in self-ascribed level of autonomy, both eating-disordered groups were significantly more field dependent than the control group, suggesting a diminished capacity for autonomous functioning in patients with these disorders. The results are seen as supporting Bruch's thesis that anorexics manifest a rigid overcontrolling ego style as a compensation for a deficit in self-directed autonomy. Bulimic patients appear to experience a similar deficit in their capacity for autonomous functioning, although their mode of monitoring impulse may be more variable.