Theoretical analysis of binge eating disorder through the perspectives of self psychology and cognitive theory/cognitive behavioral therapy, and an explanation of blending these perspectives
Year: 2013
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Binge Eating Disorder (BED), generally defined as a disorder with the central component of recurrent binge eating accompanied by marked distress, and without any accompanying compensatory behaviors to control for weight gain, has recently been formally recognized for the first time in the DSM-5, released in May 2013. This thesis traces the evolution of how BED has been understood and discussed as a DSM diagnosis over the course of about fifty years, after it was first identified not as an eating disorder, but as a phenomenon occurring only among overweight or obese populations seeking weight loss treatment. To contribute to the overall efforts of the mental health community seeking to further develop more specific and effective psychotherapeutic treatment approaches for BED, this thesis analyzes BED from the psychodynamic theoretical lens of self psychology and the more behaviorally-oriented lens of cognitive theory and its successor Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. These analyses are followed by an exploration of whether and how these two different theoretical perspectives could be blended.
Author: Llorin McCoy Edwards
Institution: Smith College
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2126995746