Considering studies that have confirmed that family environment and some characteristics of parents, especially mothers, affect the development and maintenance of anorexia nervosa (AN) in their daughters, research on how to improve knowledge of therapeutic intervention for family members of patients became crucial.

To understand the emotional experiences of mothers that affect the development and prognosis of AN.

Qualitative study interviewing in depth mothers of female outpatients seen at the General Hospital of the State University of Campinas, Brazil.

Mothers propose a fusional relationship with their daughters, in which aspects of individuality are ill-defined. the daughters’ attempts to become individuals are felt as an attack, and experienced by mothers as injustice and aggression. in this context, the daughters’ food symptoms can be understood as a desperate attempt at individuation. the mothers do not understand their daughters’ logic and try to remedy a qualitative deficiency with quantity, especially of food. the feelings of devotion/hostility that characterize these mothers express their violent attempt to annihilate the other as an individual, who can only exist as an opponent. These are mothers who cannot bear that their daughters are not extensions of themselves, and who have serious difficulties to understand their own real emotional needs. the attempt to meet these needs with food can only aggravate the alimentary symptoms of their daughters.

The findings made it possible to identify important aspects in mothers of anorexic patients, which can improve knowledge of AN and clinical interventions to treat it.