This book rethinks the diagnosis and treatment of eating disorders by putting the spotlight on their social and societal contexts, examining how these behaviours are shaped by the difficult life conditions of those suffering. Drawing on the lived experiences of nine women, this book uses in-depth case studies and interviews to discuss eating disorders with a Social Contextual Analysis framework. It prioritises the women’s own voices about their life conditions and recovery to explore the behaviour of unusual eating patterns. The book identifies common social properties across the nine women, which will become essential context when considering treatment and therapy for unusual eating. Through this more compassionate approach, readers are presented with a detailed example of new ways to analyse and treat the behaviours of mental health and therapy outside of a DSM diagnosis. Contextualising Eating Disorders is unique in its focus on giving priority to women’s voices and the social contexts behind unusual eating and will be highly relevant for all professionals working with those with unusual eating patterns, as well as students and academics in the fields of social psychology and mental health. This book will also benefit those who themselves are suffering from unusual eating patterns they might not understand.

This book rethinks the diagnosis and treatment of 'eating disorders' by putting the spotlight on their social and societal contexts, examining how these behaviours are shaped by the difficult life conditions of those suffering. Drawing on the lived experiences of nine women, this book uses in-depth case studies and interviews to discuss eating disorders with a social contextual analysis framework. It prioritises the own women's voices about their own life conditions and recovery to explore the behaviour of unusual eating patterns. The book identifies common social properties across the nine women, that will become essential context when considering treatment and therapy for unusual eating. Through this more compassionate approach, readers are presented with a detailed example of new ways to analyse and treat the behaviours of mental health and therapy outside of a DSM diagnosis. Contextualising Eating Disorders is unique in its focus on giving priority to women's voices and the social contexts behind unusual eating and will be highly relevant for all professionals working with those with unusual eating patterns, as well as students and academics in the fields of social psychology and mental health. This book will also benefit those who themselves are suffering from unusual eating patterns they might not understand.

This work reflects material covered at a psychology forum in 1990, striving to unite a psychopathalogical perspective on bulimia nervosa episodic food binging/purging with research on individual and family characteristics that might be precursors to developing eating disorders.

Enduring Change in Eating Disorders provides a unique perspective on the successful treatment of eating disorders, which are among the most debilitating and recalcitrant psychiatric diseases. Unique in the field, this book details effective Structural Family Therapy with qualitative follow-ups of up to 20 years. A practical approach providing concrete tools to the clinician to creating change that holds over time with bulimia, anorexia, and compulsive overeating. The text draws on cases from the author's practice of over twenty-five years and follows his approach in the theoretical tradition of Intensive Structural Family Therapy (IST). Chapters discuss the nature and significance of eating disorders, a review of current treatment approaches, and the importance of the family in the therapeutic process. Cases of eating disorders in youths and adults are provided as well as instances of bulimia, anorexia, and compulsive overeating. Three appendices provide the reader with information regarding the scientific basis of the IST model, the effectiveness of the approach in treating conditions other than eating disorders and preventing eating disorders.

An introduction to eating disorders, with practical advice on recognising, understanding and dealing with the problem.

When Rebecca Lester was eleven years old—and again when she was eighteen—she almost died from anorexia nervosa. Now both a tenured professor in anthropology and a licensed social worker, she turns her ethnographic and clinical gaze to the world of eating disorders—their history, diagnosis, lived realities, treatment, and place in the American cultural imagination. Famished, the culmination of over two decades of anthropological and clinical work, as well as a lifetime of lived experience, presents a profound rethinking of eating disorders and how to treat them. Through a mix of rich cultural analysis, detailed therapeutic accounts, and raw autobiographical reflections, Famished helps make sense of why people develop eating disorders, what the process of recovery is like, and why treatments so often fail. It’s also an unsparing condemnation of the tension between profit and care in American healthcare, demonstrating how a system set up to treat a disease may, in fact, perpetuate it. Fierce and vulnerable, critical and hopeful, Famished will forever change the way you understand eating disorders and the people who suffer with them.

"In No Labels: Men in Relationships with Anorexia Derek Botha argues that traditional understandings of and approaches to diagnosis and treatment for anorexia nervosa are unacceptable, inappropriate and laden with labelling ways, and thus exacerbate these men's struggles, leaving them dishonoured, disabled, powerless and even more distressed. He presents alternative ways of understanding the nature of their social positionings as well as a more appropriate therapy for them, namely narrative therapy."--Back cover.