Personlighet, extrem fetma och avmagring

Mattlar, C.-E. et al.: Personality, extreme obesity and weight reducing. Nordisk Psykologi, 1987, 39 (1), 1–13. In the present study, the concept of obesity is highlighted, and data from a multidisciplinary 1-year intervention program with 20 obese females and 10 obese males (all participating voluntarily) at the Rehabilitation Research Centre of the Social Insurance Institution in Finland are discussed. The intervention procedures were primarily informative, the aim being to help the participants formulate new, positive values and ways of living. The successful clients were gifted and goal-directed, or conventional and dependent, while the failures were characterized as having ego-problems and a faulty perception of reality. They were also prone to use denial and repression as defence mechanisms.