Anorexia nervosa reconceptualized from a psychosocial transactional perspective.

Anorexia nervosa is conceptualized as a number of very different instrumental actions that occur within particular family contexts. Six psychosocial transactional patterns--negativistic, attention centering, distracting, childlike, attractive, and self-punishing--are identified. This psychosocial transactional perspective is proposed as an alternative to approaches that focus on the "psychopathology" of young female anorexics.