Obsessive-Compulsive Aspects of Obesity

Abstract

Obesity is related in some ways to the range of disorders which are compulsively produced and sustained. Like drug or alcohol addiction, obesity may be the consequence of a personality configuration that compels some individuals to overeat as a way of dealing with emotional distress. Such individuals feel exempt from the human physiological limitations and feel they can eat without gaining weight, or they perceive their body image as slender rather than obese. Any therapeutic program must take into account this aspect of grandiosity, which is at the core of many addictive processes. Obesity therefore is viewed here as an addictive disorder in which physiological factors may initiate or sustain the psychological processes.