Il peso del partner e il peso della coppia. Una visione sistemica in chirurgia bariatrica

Abstract

Last century definitively debunked the myth of ‘fat is beautiful’, transforming what had been considered as a sign of wealth and health into a negative stigma, and not only from the aesthetic point of view. This is the context of bariatric surgery, which is often seen not as a resolutive intervention of certain diseases, even serious ones, linked to obesity, but as the ultimate resource, after the failures of restrictive diets, to redefine one’s body identity.

This article aims to highlight the link between body image, identity and couple relationship, as well as the lack of clarity that the patient often has on the overlapping of these aspects and the "weight" of each of them in the bariatric course.

Referring to a protocol already tested, the article tries to define the intervention of the psychologist within the bariatric surgical unit, as an aid to the patient in the redefinition of his own body image and identity, and to the couple in the explication of possible collusive or degenerative elements of the pact, as a positive prognostic factor in performing the prescriptions, as an aid to the surgical team in defining the patient's personality.