Psychometric Profiles of Object Relations and Identity in Women with Bulimia Nervosa: A Psychodynamic Pilot Study

Background: Psychodynamic models of bulimia nervosa emphasize disturbances in object relations and identity organization, but quantitative evidence from treatment samples remains limited. Objective: To provide a psychodynamically informed, profile-oriented secondary analysis of object-relations and identity domains in women with bulimia nervosa, emphasizing rank-order patterns and practice-oriented domain configurations rather than primary association testing. Methods: This exploratory cross-sectional pilot study included 28 women (16–40 years) with diagnostically confirmed bulimia nervosa (ICD-10 F50.2), recruited from a specialized eating-disorders center. Participants completed the Bell Object Relations Inventory (BORI) and Erwin Identity Scale (EIS-III). This manuscript prioritizes descriptive and correlational profile interpretation. Results: Insecure attachment (M = 6.57, SD = 3.08) and alienation (M = 6.07, SD = 3.64) were the most pronounced object-relations features (Table 2). Identity domains were strongly interrelated (confidence with body/appearance: r = 0.91, p < 0.001; confidence with sexual-identity indicators: r = 0.87, p < 0.001). Cross-domain analyses showed inverse associations between object-relations disturbance and identity indicators (e.g., alienation with confidence: r = −0.75, p < 0.01; Table 4). Conclusions: In this pilot treatment sample, object-relations disturbances were associated with identity-related difficulties. Findings are consistent with integrative psychodynamic case formulation and provide hypothesis-generating estimates for future confirmatory research in larger, controlledsamples.