Interpreting Tanya's Psychodynamic Theory

There is a variety of psychological theories that could explain Tanya’s case, one being the psychoanalytic theory which is a subdivision of the psychodynamic theory. Freud established psychoanalysis where he based this theory on the principal of all behaviours being stemmed from the unconscious. Freud defined this phenomenon as a person’s defence mechanisms no longer being useful as they become harmful to the individual, this is known as the neurotic paradox. Freudians would argue that Tanya suffers from the neurotic paradox as she suffers from unresolved anger and feelings towards her parents and channels these feelings through bingeing and purging. Freud would argue that feelings or memories that individuals don’t want to face are repressed and banished from their
This is evidence that Tanya is trying to fulfil her need for maternal affection is another way as she is expressing anger towards her mother for not showing her love and support that she desired. Bowlby (Chassler, 1998) discovered the attachment theory which explains the way people are driven to form attachments to certain things or others. Chassler, 1998- “A healthy and nurturing attachment to a primary caregiver leads to a well-adjusted child, however disturbances in this attachment can lead to a variety of psychological problems developing’. Tanya was exposed to hostile feelings that her parents had towards each other at a young age resulting to the positive attachment towards her parents being disrupted. As she felt responsible for her parent’s behaviours since a young age as she had to stop them from arguing. Humphrey (as cited in Chassler, 1998, p. 406) states ‘families of bulimic nervosa sufferers tend to be, higher in conflict, chaos, detachment, neglect, dependency and contradictory communications than normal