ABSTRACT
Originally published in 1986, Sara Gilbert provided the first systematic and comprehensive coverage of the psychological aspects of eating disorders and their treatment.
The book begins with an account of normal eating behaviour and the problems of explaining its control in the individual in the context of social and cultural influences. It describes cross-cultural differences in attitudes to being overweight or underweight, and the current western dilemma of pressures towards slimness on the one hand and the increasing demand for choice and fast food on the other.
In Part II, the author describes the phenomena of overeating and undereating, both in relation to people with systemic disease and in people suffering from obesity, anorexia nervosa and bulimia. She examines the psychological causes of overeating and undereating, and the problems of drawing a line between purely medical and purely social-psychological explanations.
In Part III of the book, the author provides a summary of treatments for overeating and undereating, with emphasis on the psychological approaches. She describes new developments, in particular in the use of behavioural techniques, and their significance as a means of allowing individual sufferers some choice in the course of their own treatment.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part |25 pages
Normal eating behaviour
chapter |8 pages
Cultural aspects of eating and body weight
chapter |15 pages
The control of feeding and weight
part |99 pages
Pathology of eating
chapter |5 pages
Introduction
chapter |7 pages
Anorexia and disorders of eating as a secondary factor
chapter |25 pages
Anorexia nervosa
chapter |6 pages
Overeating and demonstrable pathology
chapter |30 pages
Overeating and obesity
chapter |24 pages
Overeating and people of normal weight
part |70 pages
Treatment of the eating disorders