Feminist Perspectives on Eating Disorders [Paperback]

Patricia Fallon (Editor), Melanie A. Katzman (Editor), Susan C. Wooley (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1572301821 | ISBN-13: 978-1572301825 | Publication Date: October 1, 1996 | Edition: 1

This important new work uses the feminist perspective to illuminate and explore the relationship between the anguish of those who suffer from eating disorders and the problems of ordinary women. The book reviews the history of fashion, appearance norms for women, and body image problems, and provides a sociocultural context for studying recurrent symptoms of the disorder. Chapters offer illuminating discussion on such controversial topics as sexual abuse and its relevance to eating disorders, the mother?daughter relationship, the use of medications, hospitalization, and 12?step programs, and the potentially different contributions of male and female therapists in treating this population. Aimed at psychiatrists, psychologists, social works, and other mental health professionals working with patients suffering from eating disorders, this book also serves as a valuable text for graduate and advanced undergraduate students in women's studies courses.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Approximately 90 percent of individuals who struggle with eating disorders are women. Clearly, a volume that is dedicated to a feminist understanding of these disorders is long overdue. Drs. Fallon, Katzman, and Wooley, veteran clinicians in the area have collected a distinguished group of authors who present this perspective. The chapters are all thoughtful, rigorous, and highly readable. This is a text that should be read by all clinicians interested in this area, regardless of their theoretical orientation." --Craig Johnson, Ph.D., Co-Director, Laureate Psychiatric Clinic and Hospital, Eating Disorders Program, Professor of Clinical Psychology, University of Tulsa

"These essays on women's troubled relationship to her body and food are of a high standard. They take as their starting point women's experience in the social, psychological, and political worlds. They express the pain, the rage, and the courage that is women's lives while their scholarship shows our strivings to create better understandings of our lives." --Susie Orbach, psychotherapist and writer, author of Fat is a Feminist Issue and Hunger Strike: The Anorectic's Struggle as a Metaphor of Our Age.

"In the grey stream of publications on eating disorders, this colorful book cannot be overlooked by those working with anorexic or bulimic patients. Its contents is so rich and fresh, but at the same time, provocative and even shocking, that no reader will remain 'untouched.'" --Walter Vandereycken, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Psychiatry, University of Leuven, Belgium

"The editors offer a thought-provoking and insightful overview of feminist perspectives and one rich with clinical implications. The theoretical concepts and technical issues are effectively presented, making this indispensable reading for anyone undertaking work with eating disorder patients." --Michael Strober, Ph.D., Director, UCLA Eating Disorders Program and Editor, International Journal of Eating Disorders

"This is a major work. A timely work. A huge contribution. A labor of both love and anger. These authors together affirm the rediscovery that life is not gender-neutral at all. Whether it has to be gender antagonistic remains an unsettled issue. This distinguished group of authors cover the gamut of important material concerning eating disorders from history, sociocultural development, moral indictment, ironic commentary, treatment, and prevention. Virtually every emotion is aroused by this volume. Some wonderfully outrageous chapters are included such as 'The Female Therapist as Outlaw'. 'Alternatives in Obesity Treatment Beside Dieting' fills a necessary void. It is time to accept diversity in weights as we do diversity in almost every other area of life. This is a serious and monumental work, but that the same time eminently readable, almost a page-turner. Agree with it. Disagree with it. Love it. Hate it. Feel justified. Feel guilty. But read it." --Arnold E. Andersen, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry, University of Iowa

"An excellent, holistic approach to a multi-faceted issue." --Rena Pallof, John F. Kennedy University, Graduate School for Holistic Studies, Orinda, CA; Course: Psychology of Nutrition

"A thorough and clear statement of what constitutes feminist approaches to eating disorders." --Janet L. Etzi, Immaculata College

About the Author

Patricia Fallon, Ph.D., is a psychologist in private practice and a clinical faculty member, University of Washington, Seattle. She serves on the editorial board of Eating Disorders: The Journal of Treatment & Prevention and speaks frequently at conferences on feminist theory and treatment of eating disorders. She is co-author of Bulimia: A Systems Approach to Treatment and author of articles in the areas of eating disorders, family therapy, and abuse.

Melanie A. Katzman, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist in private practice in New York City and serves on the faculty of New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. She is on the editorial board of Eating Disorders: The Journal of Treatment & Prevention and lectures frequently to national audiences. The author of articles and book chapters on eating disorders, women's issues, and group therapy, she is the co-author of two books, Treating Bulimia: Psycho-Educational Approach and You Can't Have Your Cake and Eat It Too.

Susan C. Wooley, Ph.D., is a Professor of Psychology and Co-founder and Co-Director of the Eating Disorders Clinic in the Psychiatry Department, University of Cincinnati Medical College. Widely published in the fields of obesity, eating disorders, and body image, she is especially noted for her feminist orientation to these topics. A consulting editor to a number of journals, who serves on the editorial boards of the International Journal of Eating Disorders and Eating Disorders: The Journal of Treatment and Prevention, she is a frequent presenter at national conferences and is currently nearing completion of her own book, Screaming in a Different Language.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 465 pages
• Publisher: Guilford Press; 1 edition (October 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1572301821
• ISBN-13: 978-1572301825
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #239,134 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Powerful Read, August 20, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Feminist Perspectives on Eating Disorders (Paperback)

I have read many books on the multidimensional subject of eating disorders, and I can confidently say that this is one of the best. The 22 authors deal with all aspects of eating disorders: historical, cultural, social, and psychological, to name just a few. I especially like the on-going theme of the FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE--I find it empowering. Hopefully, the views in this book can generate discussion that will lead to change.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A well-explicated series of works on a ubiquitous problem, June 13, 2000

By 

Debra Mollen (Lewisville, Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Feminist Perspectives on Eating Disorders (Paperback)

The authors delve into some of the least-examined aspects of eating disorders with grace and insight. This is the book that the eating disorder literature has needed: one that incorporates a feminist perspective, involves cultural considerations, and combines theory with research for a dynamic text.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars reveals dearth of serious feminist theorizing about EDs, December 4, 2003

By 

"lexylit" (university of california, irvine) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Feminist Perspectives on Eating Disorders (Paperback)

This collection of twenty-two essays by therapists, professors, researchers, and philosophers explores the sociocultural phenomenon of eating disorders from a feminist perspective, working through questions of theory and application with an eye toward cultivating a better-informed approach to the epidemic. The book begins with some historical framing, includes a section on the issues that mere fact of having a body raise for patient and therapist, deals with questions of textuality and discourse, and calls for a feminist model of treatment and recovery as well as a redefined research agenda for the entire field. Two important essays, Marcia Germaine Hutchinson's "Imagining Ourselves Whole: A Feminist Approach to Treating Body Image Disorders" and Deborah L. Tolman and Elizabeth Debold's "Conflicts of Body and Image: Female Adolescents, Desire, and the No-Body Body," unsettle the position of woman within speech and society by using the compound "body-image" to show how woman stands as both speaking, acting subject (body) and passive gazed-at object or picture (image).