Five women between the ages of 21 and 46, obtaining high scores on the bulimic factor subset of the Eating Attitudes Test, were given comprehensive psychological test batteries. Their MMPI, Rorschach, and TAT protocols were analyzed for evidence of a bulimic pattern. Although a tendency to withdraw from meaningful relationships, difficulty with impulse control, and accessibility to parental pressure with diminished separation‐fostering aggression were typical implications of the test results, the protocols were more conspicuous for their heterogeneity than for their homogeneity on nearly all dimensions. It is suggested that psychological test data, particularly from projective measures, can increase our understanding of bulimia and help to provide answers to persistent questions about this puzzling, although widespread, syndrome.

The Rorschach inkblots were rated for their similarity to 40 concepts by 111 female and 116 male students. A 5-point scale was used to compare the inkblots with eight concepts in each of five categories: psychoanalytic affective-symbolic connotations, an alternate set of affective-symbolic connotations, “popular” Rorschach responses, affectively toned concepts, and randomly selected nouns. A one-way repeated-measures analysis of variance for each inkblot provided the error terms for Dunn's multiple-comparison test. Although results varied considerably from inkblot to inkblot, the cards were rated over-all more similar to the derived concepts than to their traditionally assumed connotations. These findings and the results of other studies suggest that reliance on any set of hypothesized a priori meanings in Rorschach interpretation may be hazardous or, at best, premature.

Bulimia, a new entry in our system of nomenclature, has become more prevalent during the past decade and has stimulated a considerable amount of research. It still remains a theoretical and therapeutic puzzle in spite of a variety of efforts to conceptualize it. Treatment approaches are multitudinous and sometimes conflicting, partly due to problems in definition of the disorder, and the role of psychoanalysis is still unclear. This paper surveys current information on bulimia with an emphasis on social, psychological and psychoanalytic theories of its causation and their application to treatment.