ABSTRACT

Using attachment theory as a lens for understanding the role of food in our everyday lives, this book explores relationships with other people, with ourselves and between client and therapist, through our connection with food.

The aim of this book is twofold: to examine the nature of attachment through narratives of feeding, and to enrich psychotherapy practice by encouraging exploration of clients’ food-related memories and associations. Bringing together contributions from an experienced group of psychotherapists, the chapters examine how our connections with food shape our patterns of attachment and defence, how this influences appetite, self-feeding (or self-starving) and how we may then feed others. They consider a spectrum from a "secure attachment" to food through to avoidant, preoccupied and disorganised, including discussion of eating disorders.

Enriched throughout with diverse clinical case studies, this edited collection illuminates how relationships to food can be a rich source of insight and understanding for psychotherapists, psychoanalysts and other counselling therapists working today.

chapter Chapter 1|22 pages

The last supper

Attachment, loss … and food

chapter Chapter 2|17 pages

“He's got a good appetite”

How do men experience attachment and food?

chapter Chapter 3|18 pages

Food and feelings

chapter Chapter 4|15 pages

“Let food be thy medicine”

The impact of nutrition on mental well-being

chapter Chapter 5|23 pages

Overcoats, burning buildings and planks of wood

An integrated attachment-based approach to working with eating disorders

chapter Chapter 6|20 pages

Dysfunctional eating in recovering addicts

A therapist's shift to an attachment-focused approach

chapter Chapter 7|19 pages

Kitchen Therapy

Cooking for connection and belonging

chapter Chapter 8|15 pages

Food in the consulting room

chapter Chapter 9|22 pages

Guess who's coming to dinner

Culture, community, identity … and food