sorders as an attempt to grasp and maintain control that arises as a reaction formation against a desperate sense of powerlessness. Can it be that the powerlessness, lack of control, and need for control so often experienced by eating disorder clients is related to family factors? Such a relationship has been suggested by Brone and Fisher (1988) who suggested that the development of an eating disorder is, in fact, an attempt to wrest control away from an overly controlling family.
With respect to the foregoing, Brone and Fisher (1988) stated that factors such as the enmeshed family structure and overprotectiveness so often found in the families of eating disorder clients, combine to leave the individual with a poor sense of identity and deep feelings of personal ineffectiveness. Typically compliant and dependent in childhood, these people often attempt to assert their individuality and to become independent from family demands by developing an eating disorder. In effect, the disorder is a manifestation of the client's attempt to gain control o
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