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Professor Battegay is a Swiss psychiatrist practicing in Basel. He defines “hunger disease” as an excessive desire for fusion with an object. This hunger reflects inner emptiness, a sense of being unfulfilled, and uncertainty in the realm of self-esteem. The term “hunger disease” is associated with all those states in which individuals are driven to consume objects in an addictive manner. Battegay integrates biology, psychology, and sociology and focuses more on the phenomenology and psychodynamics of this hunger than on treatment issues.
The etiology resembles what we frequently associate with narcissistic pathology. He describes individuals who did not experience in their early childhood the warmth and stimulation that all humans need for healthy development. For the rest of their lives, these individuals seek the tender emotional experiences they feel were missing in their lives. Because of early deficiency, they entertain grandiose expectations toward all persons that they meet. They end up feeling hungry, disappointed, and unfulfilled. According to the author, the hunger can be expressed in a wide variety of ways including eating disorders, diabetes, “type A” personality (which can make one prone to cardiovascular illness), as well as addictions to drugs and alcohol.
The hunger for power can be a consequence of a lack of calmness and parental attention in early childhood. Many politicians who suffer from low self-esteem end up completely dependent on praise and applause from their supporters. Those who suffer from anorexia nervosa display their emotional hunger by starving themselves physically. Pleasure is gained from living in a dangerous zone between life and death. Often the communication between anorexics and their relatives concerns only eating and their thinness becomes a symbol of their addictive hunger. Obese people and bulimics, on the other hand, eat large quantities in haste because they hope that through eating they will become emotionally fulfilled.