Product Description
In an extensively revised new edition of the successful Anorexia and Bulimia, Richard Gordon includes new information and discussion of the latest ideas in this rapidly growing research field. There is extensive discussion of the clinical aspects of disorders, in particular their relationship to obsessive-compulsive disorder, plus data of recovery and mortality. It also provides accounts of the latest research on the epidemiological status of eating disorders and the subsequent debate that this work has engendered. Further new features include the analysis of the role of sexual abuse in eating disorders; the relationship of obesity to anorexia and bulimia, and consideration of the recent debates surrounding the politics of eating disorders.The past two decades have witnessed an enormous increase in the number of cases of eating disorders in industrial societies. Richard Gordon brings together historical and cultural perspectives, as well as his own clinical experience, in order to examine the sociocultural roots of this apparent epidemic. The high incidence of these once rare conditions in contemporary societies can be traced to a number of interrelated factors: the changing role of women, the increasingly difficult transition from adolescence to adulthood, the social importance attached to physical beauty which focuses on thin body shape, a general pursuit of health and fitness and, ironically, the glamorization of anorexia in the mass media which has made its symptoms fashionable. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A must have!
One of the best books I've read on Anorexia.A must have for any therapist treating eating disorders.I keep copies in my office to keep for patients.I wish it wasn't out of print.Glad Amazon is around to buy old copies.Useful for all eating disorders, by the way.Excellent CBT approach.

Good book for any compulsive problem
I do not have anorexia but Learned so much from this bookMy friend and I went through it like it was a college class.We loved it.We did the work and reaped the rewards.Thanks, Kitty

A Cognitive Approach to Eating Disorders
This book is very heavily based on cognitive and rational-emotive therapy as a way to control emotions, and therefor destructive eating patterns. Dr. Sandbek talks about the differences between constructive negative emotions (like sadness) and negative destructive emotions (like depression), and their consequent constructive and destructive behaviors. You learn to recognize that destructive emotions come from distorted thoughts. He recommends taking all the ugly things one says to themselves and thinking of it as a seperate internal voice.Then you learn to argue with and defeat the "Voice." Dr. Sandbek also emphasizes time management and stress reduction techniques. On the negative side Dr. Sandbek doesn't appear to have an iota of a feminist perspective in him (at one point he recommends anorexics look Playboy so they can see how much thinner they are then women "men consider attractive"), which is startling considering how many women this disease affects.This isn't too much of a concern however, since clearly his intent is to help women overcome disempowering emotions and behaviors, with clinical proven cognitive tools. ... Read more

Product Description
Figures of Lightness explores the psychoanalytic treatment of eating disorders, using the theories of Freud and Lacan to construct a description of anorexia and bulimia which is based on an awareness of unconscious psychological processes. Gabriella Ripa di Meana proposes an investigative method involving structural linguistics, hermeneutics and formal logic. She analyses the anorectic's and bulimic's sense of identity in Freudian terminology, and examines the combinations of subjection and independence within the family and within modern society. Arguing that our present classifications of eating disorders are too crude, she defines different forms of anorexia and bulimia. She also uses famous works of art and literature to enrich the conclusions she draws from clinical studies and further the understanding of these disorders. ... Read more

Product Description
This book presents a combined or interdisciplinary approach for dealing with anorexia and bulimia as well as other eating disorders that affect young people and old and that have become increasingly prevalent in our appearance-obsessed culture. Celebrities parade their thinness; the Internet abounds with tips for teenage girls on how to survive on two hundred calories a day. Food disorders are a real and present issue for families and individuals. ... Read more

Product Description
The theme of this text is the enduring relationship of anorexia nervosa to the unfolding of puberty, which transcends and shapes the input of "fashion". Anorexia nervosa is closely related to the personal challenges of adolescence and further growth within the individual and family. The author sees the disorder as an avoidance of the mounting fear of normal adult weight, with puberty at its pivot. His approach to all those concerned involves their engagement and empowerment in the prospect of renewed, healthier growth and recovery. It is significantly effective in both the short and the long term. ... Read more

Product Description
Eating disorders comprise a diverse group, which include anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, and other non-specific eating disorders. Recently the rising incidence of obesity in the population and in particular childhood obesity, has attracted attention in western countries. This book concentrates mainly on anorexia nervosa, not in a vain attempt to find a 'representative' eating disorder, but because it encapsulates wider medico-legal and socio-ethical dilemmas around the use of coercion in the management of an often chronic and unresponsive condition, especially in adulthood. ... Read more

Product Description
Text following the last twenty years of three psychotherapy patients who recovered from their severe disturbances. For the professional. Softcover. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent - with two reservations
Malan's book is essentially three case studies (one on each of the disorders listed in the title). As usual, his writing is clear and he has an ability to turn complex psychodynamics into simple human issues.

Witheach section, Malan reviews current literature and discusses thetherapeutic process as it applies to each case.

Of interest to anyone whohas followed Malan's work over the years is that in some places in thebook, he reports follow-up information on cases he originally described in1979 in his "Individual Psychotherapy..." text.

My tworeservations are as follows. Malan is writing in the UK, where the Tarasoffruling holds much less sway than in North America. As a result, some ofwhat Malan says about the legal/practice implications of managing homicideand suicide would not be considered standard practice "overhere".

My second reservation has to do with the "murder"case. The patient has sexually motived homicidal fantasies, and throughoutis managed on an outpatient basis. While this case works out, I would bevery cautious about trying his methods of management with little clinicalor forensic experience. Even with that experience, I am still left withsome reservation about how that case worked itself out. (Should you readthis case, I would be happy to discuss it and would be interested inhearing your views.)

In all, Malan remains one of the brightest stars inthe applied psychoanalytic therapy field and fans of the extended casestudy will not be disappointed. ... Read more

Product Description
Anorexia is a distressing condition that commonly affects teenage girls but also touches women and men across all ages. As well as the physical dangers, sufferers experience difficulties in many aspects of their lives, including relationships, work and family life. Anorexia can be a serious condition - studies of severe hospitalised cases show that between 5 and 21 percent die, from starvation and suicide. Contrary to popular belief, however, 'once an anorexic, always an anorexic' isn't true - it is possible to beat anorexia and live a life where food, weight and shape play a more healthy and less dominant role.This book is aimed at sufferers, parents and partners, and points out how to recognise anorexia, and what to do about it. It deals with the physical and psychological features. The reader will be able to better understand the causes of anorexia and the anorectic mind. There is a strong emphasis on relieving the helplessness and anxiety felt by carers, with information on the nature of anorexia, treatment options and recovery. The book deals with how to access professional help.There are also practical suggestions to assist sufferers and their families overcome the condition. ... Read more

Product Description
"I keep trying to remind myself that a number on a scale doesn’t make up who I am. My weight shouldn’t control my mind, but it does. I wish everything about this eating disorder would just end, but I fear that in many ways it never will."

Alyssa Biederman’s compelling journey through anorexia began her junior year in high school. From the outside looking in, she appeared to have it all. Raised in an affluent community, Alyssa was involved in both her community and school. She was an honor roll student, on the school newspaper staff and four-year varsity letter winner in tennis.

Yet, despite her picture perfect life, this natural beauty was unable to see herself the way others did. What started as a quest to lose a couple pounds soon became a dangerous obsession.

Alyssa’s emotional struggle with anorexia is revealed in the personal journal she affectionately refers to as My Rory. Named after the friend she pushed away while battling to find herself, this journal is a heart-wrenching account of the confused inner mind of a teenage eating disorder victim.

This story is a must read for anyone suffering from an eating disorder and their family and friends wishing to understand and support them. My Rory captures a rare glimpse of the inner feelings and thoughts of both an anorexic and her family as they battle toward recovery. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

I loved this book!
This was a great book!I recommend this book to teachers, counselors, parents and teenagers.Gives great personal insight as well as hope to those suffering from anorexia and other eating disorders.

Excellent Book!
I loved this book and highly recommend it to anyone struggling with an eating disorder.I cried, I laughed and I felt for the author as she and her family struggled with anorexia.I greatly admire the author's strength and have shared it with several friends.Finally, a book that truly displays the struggle ananorexic faces first hand!

Great reality book about anorexia
I am a 17 year old recovering anorexic and I really enjoyed this book.I have experienced much of the same turmoil as the author and it helped having someoneto relate to.Many people let me down along the way also including my school counselors and so-called friends.They just didn't understand what it is like living with an eating disorder. I had counseling which was good, but it reached a point where I realized I needed to help myself. Again, I could totally relate to the author.My parents and good friends supported me all the way. I don't think I would be here without them. Anorexia is a lonely disorder because very few people understand it.This book was good for me. It also gave me continued hope. I admire the author's strength and courage to talk openly about anorexia. I wish the book was longer and had more stories about her daily struggle.I recommend this book!

A must read for all teenage girls
Once I started reading this book, I couldn't put it down.I could relate to the author so well. I never thought anyone understood what I am going through until now.It helped me so much to realize I am not alone.Ihighly recommend this book to teenage girls and their parents. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (17)

relating to teenagers
I found this read to be heart felt, emotional, and real.Even though I have never know anyone myself who has had an eating disorder, I related to it simply by the struggles of raising children.When our children are born, they don't come with a book on how to raise them, we just go with the flow and do the best we can. Normal is hard enough, but Mary went the extra mile with blinders on and never gave up on her family.Now that's real. Wrinkles on the Heart is for anyone. To actually read a book (journal) written by a mother, and feel every emotion that a person can feel was amazing. Thank you Mary for sharing your story to help anyone dealing with an eating disorder and the insight of just raising children and not giving up.

Anorexia Nervosa ---- A Chronicle of the Battle for a Life
First, let me say that I have never had any first-hand experience with this condition, so this story was a real eye-opener for me. I found this to be a riveting story of determination, courage and love. It is the moving and true story of a family's struggle to help their daughter overcome anorexia. This book details the mother's daily struggles to understand and support her daughter while trying to continue her role as a wife and a mother to three other children. The reader will be drawn into the story of this terrible battle with its many ups and downs. Father and mother often disagreed on the right approach to this problem in their family and even the medical professionalsdidn't always have the right answers. Mary Fleming Callaghan tells her story through a series of letters written to her uncle and through diary entries.
The chronicle of a family's struggle to overcome this threat to the life of a beloved daughter should be read by everyone who is experiencing this problem with a family member. And, it should be required reading by every medical professional who deals with this frightening disorder.

When anorexia lasts too long...
`Wrinkles on the Heart' by Mary Callaghan is a godsend for all parents of children with anorexia. It is a poignant, immensely readable book, written with enviable honesty. (It was a catharsis for being able to remember how much of a brat my own my beloved daughter, who also suffers from anorexia, was at the beginning of her illness.)

All the stages of Mary's family and her daughter's plight were identical to ours, not the details, but the frustration, anger and helplessness that accompany the illness or behaviour or whatever it may be. The difficulties of our own struggle and quest for appropriate support, in both England and in France (medical help is more efficient and readily available in the latter country) were compounded by vastly different, sometimes conflicting, approaches and attitudes. Only when I had become thoroughly confused by the different psychiatrists and their sometimes stupendously inhuman treatment, did I feel I had to take a step back and leave my daughter to take responsibility for her survival and improvement. What a relief to find this is what Mary Callaghan recommends; it was the turning point in her daughter's illness.

Mary Callaghan's book is an ever-present help for suffering parents. And when you finish reading it, there is Mary right on-line willing to help parents with any issues she may not have addressed. A great writer. A great woman. Thank you Mary.

She understood how I felt . . .
Keith from Tucson

We found Mary Callaghan's book,Wrinkles on the Heart, and we ordered it immediately. We didn't expect much since most every book we read on this subject found parents an easy, vulnerable target. I was pleasantly surprised. Wrinkles was a refreshing departure from the many academic volumes and their unfair conclusions. The Callaghans had walked the same road as we were now on, and Mary was able to put those agonizing struggles into words.

After reading Wrinkles I was struck by a surprising reality. The suggestions Mary makes in her narrative could also be applied to other cases of aberrant teenage behavior, situations that had nothing whatsoever to do with an eating disorder. That perception alone encouraged me to write this review.

I could relate to George's frustration with Kathleen. My daughter's stubborn refusal to listen to reason drove me crazy, just as it had for George. My wife seemed able to handle the stress better than I simply because she could talk to her friends about it, whereas I found that difficult to do. This caused disagreements and tension between us, just as it had for the Callaghans.

Mary addressed these kinds of issues in her book which made me feel that she understood how I was feeling. She and George didn't agree but they both cared for and agonized over Kathleen's welfare. Their approaches were diametrically opposed, but they were as one in their love for her. This was so close to our own scenario that it was almost eerie.

Thank you, Mary. You helped us see that we were not so strange after all, that we were just like thousands of other parents looking for solutions to an alarming and life-threatening problem before it was too late.

I whole-heartedly recommend Wrinkles on the Heart to all parents and families who are faced with similar life and death struggles, no matter what the source of those struggles might be.

Writing from experience
Being an aspiring writer myself, and currently recovering from anorexia, Iimmediately expected to be critical of this novel.I gained new insight onthe chaos and pain I placed my family and loved ones through during mydiagnosis, and have a new appreciation for everything that they, my motherin particular, have done for me.The story is passionately andappropriately told.It's difficult for the recovery anorexic to except,but it is also essential.I would recommend it for those suffering orrecovering. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

Unfair criticism: Beware of sensationalism
My daughter has been suffering with anorexia and bulimia for years. I paid $40,000 out of pocket to what is considered to be "one of the best in the U.S." eating disorder recovery clinics. Sad to say they made a lot of mistakes. That was a year ago and now she is back to square one. I have read Peggy's book and know that she has many of the correct ideas for therapy, that are not always utilized at other clinics. I appreciate the courage she has shown in trying to help those with this unbelievably tough illness.
I could easily write a book about the mistakes that the clinic made that my daughter went to, as could other parents. Bottom line, medicine and psychology still have a lot to learn in how eating disorders should be treated. I appreciate that there are alternatives for those that are seemingly impossible to treat.

How sad the media slants thing
I personally know this clinic.I reviewed it for a major health care organization.The doors were never locked, but always thrown open.I had access to everything and everyone there during my visits.I was never denied access to records, clients, etc.
The author creates sensationalism which their business thrives on.Peggy Claude Pierre did help many, and hopefully, still is.I note that the author dwells on the few that didn't suceed in the program rather than the large number that did.I had a patient that went there and as testament, I continue to receive cards from the parents yearly from the family for being a part of saving their daughters life (who when I accepted the case was being sent home from a large medical facility to let her rest comfortably while she was dying).
Peggy may not be conventional but anyone who has seen her with an infant crying...or a client crying can tell she has the touch.She truly cares about people and the work she is doing.
And....why don't we attack her and David for making some money.Let's see now...has the author gained from this book.If not personal monetary gain, has she gotten her name "out there" on a sensational book?People aren't allowed to make money.None of the attackers made money?When I frist met Peggy and David they were struggling.I don't know their financial condition now, nor do I need to know.They need to make a living like everyone else, so we condemn then becuase they have to worry where the money was going to come from?Wake up!!Go to ANY hospital in the United States with no insurance card, with a major catastrophic illness needing surgery and see if you get the services wtihout a way of granting payment.See if the hospital or health care organization doesn't ask you for the deed to your home.Get real!This is the way it works.There are bills to pay.I work for a major health organization and I "KNOW" how the system works.Let's compare their salaries to those of large hospital CEO's and see if we can find the differences in the millions in yearly compensation.
Further...it's so very sad when people can't have hugs or some sort of compassion.Does the author have ANY idea of the number of children and medically and psychologically fragile patients that NEED a hug?Any idea of the number of children that don't even know what a hug is?
Yeah, there have probably been mistakes with the approaches.I was a difficult one to convince that the program would work not being a medical model.It did though.Now, taking the authors approach we should probably condemn the frontrunners of sucess for thinking outside the box.Thank God the author didn't get to Christian Bernard or the many others like him.
I wasted my money on this book only becuase I got it cheap.I never had a desire to read it.I threw it out.I wouldn't pass it on to anyone.
How sad that journalism is all about this anymore.

An Eye Opener
This book shows Peggy Claude Pierre's lack of knowledge concerning eating disorders.This book is a must read for anyone interested in one Of PeggyClaude-Pierre's books.I am so glad this book was written because Peggy is very convincing.But it's not realistic to work with clients 24 hrs a day for a year.If other eating disorder specialists spent that much time on thier clients they'd have similiar success as Peggy.

what bullfunky
it's wonder how she got this book written. i personally was a patient of the clinic when this all "went down" and i can vouch that most of this book is based on stories that are not truthful. don't waste your money or your time on this book. i am well now and bottom line is that i got well because of the montreux clinic. peggy has never claimed that she "gets anorexics well" and anyone who has ever been associated with an anorexic knows darn well that the patient has to be the one to get them well. the montreux clinic works because it's a safe place where people understand the underlying problem and give you a place to discover who you are meant to be. get your facts right, Meg, before you slander a place that has helped so many. this was nothing but a personal attack on someone who helped me save my own life, and i think it's disgusting.

People need to know the Truth
I knew employees from the clinic.The author speaks truth boldly..and extremely well documented.Good work. ... Read more

Product Description

Written in accessible but medically accurate prose, Anorexia provides a detailed explanation of how the diagnosis of anorexia is made, common physical and personality characteristics of those affected by the illness, and both short and long-term complications.

Anorexia takes the discussion a step further than similar books on the subject by placing the disease in context with a broad survey of the history of self-starvation from Antiquity to the present, and it tackles the difficult question of whether anorexia nervosa existed before the 19th century or is a uniquely modern disease. The book evaluates in detail the social, economic and cultural environments within which self-starvation has occurred historically, and it analyzes competing theories of the disease's origins—including sociocultural, developmental, biochemical, and genetic hypotheses. The book also provides coverage of several often overlooked topics, such as the incidence of anorexia among young men, and it makes use of the personal narrative of an anorexic throughout to give the reader some sense of what it feels like to have anorexia and what someone with anorexia may be thinking.

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent, but Amazon made mistake about reading level
This is an excellent and readable book for anyone interested in the subject of eating disorders. HOWEVER, Amazon has incorrectly pegged it as a book for the 9-12 age group. It was written for HIGH SCHOOL AND COLLEGE-AGE readers, as well as parents. ... Read more

Product Description
"Nine years ago my daughter came home after an abusive marriage and developed Anorexia, yet did not recognise she was ill. It was the beginning of a living nightmare."

Anorexia and Bulimia in the Family: One Parent’s Guide to Recovery is the first supportive self-help guide written by a carer for other carers. This is the book Gráinne Smith searched for without success, as she battled against the wall of rejection and denial her daughter’s illness built around her, determined not to allow her to be one of the 20 per cent who die.

It is her personal story that proves that these house guests can be evicted. But it is more than that. It is also a practical guide with many tips and suggestions, including how to deal with eating, kitchen and bathroom issues, how to manage dramatic changes in mood behaviour and personality, how to get the best from professional help, and how to survive as a family.Gráinne Smith knows there are no easy answers. She has researched the subject through world-leading authorities, worked as a volunteer and on a helpline. She is a mother who has lived through the nightmare, and so has her daughter. ... Read more

Product Description
Describes the origins and symptoms of anorexia nervosa, who is at risk, why it develops in certain individuals, and how it can be controlled by healthy eating habits. ... Read more