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Eating disturbances are here understood to be the expression of a disturbed personal sphere, permanent conflict between yearning for symbiotic intimacy and a fear of being abandoned. Eating and not eating are considered to be the same as having or not having a relationship, or life and death. The body becomes a transitional object in wrestling for autonomy. The personification of food represents an object choice that lessens or even avoids the conflict between intimacy and distance; it occurs during the process of trying to reconcile inner and outer reality.