Psychodynamic Therapy

Psychodynamic therapy aims not only to achieve symptomatic improvement but also to address personality-inherent intrapsychic conflicts. In the case of anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN), and binge eating disorder (BED), focal psychodynamic therapies are usually applied. The foci are those features of the Operationalized Psychodynamic Diagnosis (OPD) findings that contribute to causing and maintaining the disorder and therefore play a determining role in the psychodynamics of the clinical picture. This is associated with the assumption that something must change with regard to these foci if substantial therapeutic progress is to be achieved. Disorder-specific modifications of psychodynamic therapy for eating disorders are described.