Father types of anorexia nervosa patients: the 'bonding', the 'brutal', the 'weak' and the 'absent' father. An empirical study based on a comparison with fathers of a representative normal group.

Increased attention has been drawn in recent years to the importance of the father in the genesis of anorexia nervosa. Four types of fathers were identified and investigated by comparing, under this aspect, fathers of 96 most severely affected patients with those of 111 families of a representative normal group. The investigation showed significant differences with regard to the 'bonding' and the 'brutal' father, whereas the 'weak' and the 'absent' father showed no significantly different values; the latter was even more frequent in the Unormal population. The results shall be discussed with regard to anorexia nervosa therapy.