Fat & Furious: Mothers and Daughters and Food Obsessions [Paperback]

Judi Hollis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 25, 2002

Dr. Judi Hollis, founder of the nation's first eating disorders hospital unit, reports that in thirty years of clinical practice, she has never met a starving or bingeing person who wasn't raging within. Why? What is the link between unexpressed anger and food obsession?In Fat and Furious, Dr. Hollis traces the rage back to the "mother-daughter wound" where, at the root of all disordered eating, is one painful truth-our mothers passed on lies about their own pain, making healthy separation for their daughters impossible. And when daughters cannot claim their lives, they try to sedate, control, and suppress themselves -with food.Dr. Hollis cautions that facing the mother-daughter wound does not mean blaming your mother. The challenge is to fearlessly confront the ways in which we are repeating the dynamics of the mother-daughter relationship in our lives today.Fat and Furious is not an answer book. It is a book that will teach you how to ask probing questions-the first step to self-healing. With the wisdom and guidance in Fat and Furious, you will begin to hear and trust your own inner voice-and you will never be hungry again.

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

Hollis (Fat is a Family Affair, not reviewed) maps the journey of self-examination that women must take to heal food obsessions She contends that we are seeing epidemic levels of compulsive eating, anorexia, and bulimia, and that these eating disorders stem from rage toward the ``mother-daughter wound'' as mothers, not knowing any better, pass on lies, pain, and disappointment to their daughters. As much as mothers deny the ``unhappiness at being born female in a world that prefers males,'' daughters pick up the signals. Faced with dishonesty, they turn to food to numb the truth that the Inner Self always tells. Healing, in Hollis's approach, does not mean blaming the mother or digging through the past for clues to why women are the way they are today. Instead, she promotes the Twelve-Step approach. She asks women to carefully moderate food consumption, to stop using food as a sedative, to seek the support of a sponsor who's had an eating disorder herself, and to begin the self-exploration necessary for self-acceptance, letting go, and rebirth. This book does not pretend that it can heal women all by itself. But it does offer the true stories of women's journeys; it directs women to outside help (including, conveniently, the Hollis Institute, of which the author is the clinical director); and it provides endless writing exercises to promote self-awareness. Interestingly, accepting-mother/accepting- self doesn't always end in a loving relationship; for some women it means realizing that their mothers just don't like them--not a bad thing, just the truth. Hollis offers the usual self-help lingo, realistically, if sometimes simplistically, examining issues of power and gender to offer a slightly different approach to eating disorders. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Inside Flap

Fat and Furious is a real first...It presents mother-daughter and woman-to-woman issues which have never before been described in terms of eating disorders. Hollis draws unique parallels between negative eating habits and universal conflicts that all women face."
--Aphrodite Matsakis, Ph.D.
Author of Compulsive Eaters and Relationships
Dr. Judi Hollis, founder of the nation's first eating disorders hospital unit, reports that in twenty years of clinical practice, she has never met a starving or binging person who wasn't raging within. Why? What is the link between unexpressed anger and food obsession?
In Fat and Furious, Dr. Hollis traces the rage back to the "mother-daughter wound" where, at the root of all disordered eating, is one painful truth--our mothers passed on lies about their own pain, making healthy separation for their daughters impossible. And when daughters cannot claim their lives, they try to sedate, control, and suppress themselves--with food.
Dr. Hollis cautions that facing the mother-daughter wound does not mean blaming your mother. The challenge is to fearlessly confront the ways in which we are repeating the dynamics of the mother-daughter relationship in our lives today.
Fat and Furious is not an answer book. It is a book that will teach you how to ask probing questions--the first step to self-healing. With the wisdom and guidance in Fat and Furious, you will begin to hear and trust your own inner voice--and you will never be hungry again.


From the Trade Paperback edition. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 338 pages
• Publisher: iUniverse (November 25, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 059525571X
• ISBN-13: 978-0595255719
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #941,743 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A self guided life manual to conquering weight issues, March 7, 2000

By 

P Wallace (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fat and Furious (Paperback)

I have been in the 'fat' business for over 30 years and have read most of the self-help books over the years! I have even worked for major weight loss companies. I have a history of trying to find the root issues of this thing called obesity. I resisted reading this book because of its title. Yet, FAT and FURIOUS is THE book every woman should indeed read. It is clear, concise and thought provoking and honest. I have never written as much as I wrote during the exercises suggested in this book. I thank Judi Hollis for presenting this gift to the world. It took guts to prepare this book and allow the rest of the world to see the fantastic work that she is and has done to help so many, many of 'us' out there. I highly recommend this book to you only if you are READY to commit yourself to knowing, truly and honestly knowing what's going on in that beautiful body of yours. Buy it. Read it. Inhale it. You'll be the winner. I know I am. Thank you, Judi Hollis, indeed, thank you.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars brilliant insights, culturally-biased oversights, January 8, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Fat and Furious (Paperback)

Though I was initially encouraged by the author's trenchant observations on the sometimes vexed relationship between eating and feeling, it gradually dawned on me--somewhat to my horror--that the author is coming from a traditional "come on, get skinny" approach to the topic of body size and eating/exercise lifestyle. Throughout the book, we are told to stay "just a little bit empty," so that our Inner Voice might come to the surface. Alas for the author's thesis, an attachment to "empty" is what got a lot of us where we're at. Also, it's assumed that the reader will choose to "get thin" via this "undereating" approach to consciousness raising, as opposed to learn how to create a life where relationships, life, food, and fitness eventually work pretty well, regardless of body size (some of us are just genetically programmed to be soft and wonderful, after all). What is more, the author discounts the mental, emotional, and physical benefits of exercise (the ONLY proven way to control weight over time), ignoring recent research. Some of the ideas and writing are very interesting, but I hope readers take this book with a grain of salt--and keep moving forward on their courageous paths of self-acceptance.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I Want To Meet This Person, For Her Strong Messages, November 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Fat and Furious (Paperback)

I read this book 7 times, and have maintained 1 journal, for each time that I read this book. My life has enhanced in so many ways from reading this book. It is not just about eating. It's more about how we identify ourselves as women, and taking back the power that we deserve to own. Reading this book has led to my trusting myself more than I have ever thought was possible. This led to my seeing where my interlocutor ends and I begin. Which empowers me to let the music from my voice to echo through, regardless of what my interlocutor thinks. It took all of these readings for me to answer the question for myself as to rather or not I use food for punishment or a reward. I am eternally grateful for this book, especially the for her style, and for the questions that I came up with, and wrote down, as a result of Judi Hollis's messages. There are only 2 things that I disagree with in this book, and that is writing food plans, and having others discuss with you how you ate. But, beyond that I consider this book to be a book that every girl and woman should read, to change the world, and to enhance who they are.