You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
November 20, 1967. TRICHOTILLOMANIA, TRICHOPHAGY, AND CYCLIC VOMITING: A CONTRIBUTION TO THE PSYCHOPATHOLOGY OF FEMALE SEXUALITY. Mellitta Sperling, M.D.
In this paper, Dr. Sperling presents those fragments from the analysis of a young woman directly related to her symptoms of hair pulling, hair eating, and cyclic vomiting. All of the symptoms began in infancy but the vomiting ceased at age four and did not recur until thirteen. Rich dream and fantasy material related both to the symptoms and to her psychosexual development. She fantasied a large 'stomach bag' which contained her undigested food, babies, and a ball of hair, and that her menses emanated from the 'stomach bag'. During analysis it became clear that she had displaced her anxiety on being confronted with the male genital and its functions from the penis to the pubic hair, and from the genital to the oral zones. As in conversion hysteria, unconscious fantasies were translated into somatic expressions; there was intractable pernicious vomiting and anorexia nervosa during each menstrual period. The hair pulling and hair eating were explored as fetishistic behavior. All of the symptoms proved amenable to psychoanalysis.