ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book describes the clinical and scientific knowledge in the field of prevention, diagnosis, and psychological treatment of body image distortions in patients with eating disorders, additionally taking into account the advantages and limitations of the proposed diagnostic criteria and therapeutic indications. It indicates the importance of family types and family/sociocultural myths about body image and food as well as patterns of emotional attachment as predictors of body image distortions in patients with eating disorders. The book presents psychological data documenting the importance of various psychological traumas and their significant symptoms in the process of diagnosing body image distortions in eating disorders. It presents this issue in the context of her own research on women with anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating disorder.
