The average dropout rates range from 50% and 30% for Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia respectively - a worrying prospect in face of the high mortality in Eating Disorders (ED).

This investigation aims at understanding the dropout phenomenon in EDs looking at the experience of outpatients to access the symbolic universe of the meanings attributed to dropout. It was assumed that psychological features of the ED are related to the dropout.

Qualitative methodology. the sample composition criteria were: outpatients over the age of eighteen years old once diagnosed with ED according to the criteria of the DSM IV that have dropped out. the sample was closed with nine in-depth interviews according the saturation data criteria. the procedures consisted of audio recording and literal transcription of the data, also reading the records from dropouts and the Field Diary. Ut was used a psychodynamic reference framework.

The data was submitted to qualitative analysis regarding categories of content, and the interpretation of results drew upon multiple database review studies, as well as the theoretical framework from humanities, including psychoanalysis. Some categories such as “the disease denied”, “under enslavement and vice”, “struggling for control: self and other”, “abandoning himself”, “the importance of the speech” and “the maintenance of symptom” have proved relevant for understanding the phenomenon.

The accessed meanings of dropout gave elements to improve the clinical strategies contributing to adherence and retention such as the therapeutic alliance and the handling of transference in treatment for ED.