The Transactional Object: Art Psychotherapy in the Treatment of Anorexia

The premise of this paper is that, in the treatment of anorexia, art psychotherapy has a specific contribution to make. In the case of severe eating disorders the client's relationship to food may be understood to be a means of negotiating and mediating between the internal world and the external environment. It is proposed that pictures may also mediate between the inner and outer world of the client and so between the client and the therapist. As an object of transference itself the art object may temporarily, and unconsciously, become a substitute for the use of food. It may serve a positive function as a Transactional Object. This is distinguished from the ‘Transitional Object’ (Winnicott 1971) and the ‘Transformational Object’ (Bollas 1987). The view accords with those who consider that anorexia is a borderline disturbance. Thus the anorexic client is considered to be functioning at a pre-symbolic level; she is concretising her experience and acting out through the use of food. If this need for concrete expression can be converted from an obsession with food to a use of art materials there is a beginning of a movement towards symbolisation.