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To the Editors:
Dr. Casper takes me to task for mentioning that “there may be a pituitary factor.” She insists it is normal, and that “impairment of hypothalmic function … is still being investigated.” So she offers an opinion, but also in this way corroborates what was simply a report by me on aspects of current thought.
I did not state that anorexics do not, on occasion, feel hungry. I stated that often they do not, as occurs at certain periods with starving people. Also, they may be denying their true feelings to others.
Dr. Casper also takes me to task for my statement that anorexics have the fantasy that food is poison. Everything I know about them over a long period of time leads me to say this. I did not call this paranoid. She did. But the long struggle to avoid food intake is like a monomania, and whether symbolic or paleologic thought, “poison” is my speculation as the undercurrent fantasy/belief. It suggests that mother is “poisonous.” Furthermore, in regarding as “erroneous” my view of anorexia as a social or prolonged suicidal activity, she seems to be immobile to accept my opinion as such.
Of course, the question arises, since there is not yet absolute certainty about all aspects of this condition, why does Dr. Casper take umbrage at a legitimate speculation?
I tend to feel that her background is not a psychoanalytic one. My thought is based on that of Horney, Sullivan, Fromm-Reichmann and Lidz-further