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The NICE guidelines (2017) for the psychological treatment of anorexia nervosa in young people recommend family-based therapy, cognitive behaviour therapy or psychodynamic therapy focused on the eating disorder, of all which externalisation is an integral technique. In contrast to this, we are challenging the premise of this method by using Sartre's phenomenological ontology that does not presuppose the separation of the person from the illness, which is the basic premise of the externalisation. We present the key-concepts of Sartre as described in 'Being and Nothingness'. We describe the ontological categories of the in itself and for itself, and their development into human reality in the form of facticity and transcendence. In addition, we explore the concept of the look, the psychic body and the notion of objectification through three clinical cases. We conclude by reflecting on the value of Sartre's existential ontology to the promotion of the importance of collaboration in co-constructing treatment with patients and their families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When families are in conflict, high levels of emotional activity such as anger, fear, loss and grief in the adults involved can affect children and young people in the family, particularly as a result of conscious and unconscious adult emotional pressure and manipulation. An aspect of this is when one parent uses their power over a child to excommunicate the other parent. This is sometimes called parental alienation. This terminology arises from the work of Richard Gardner, who developed the notion of Parental Alienation Syndrome. What lies behind the label parental alienation, the journey and implications of that phenomenon are explored. A consideration of the limitations of the UK court system reveals the lonely predicament of the child. This paper considers how psychotherapists may help young people to make sense of their experience of being caught up in destructive family narratives by claiming their own understanding and narrative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]