This book examines the anorectic's struggle. It provides the background for the case studies and vignettes, and suggests a new treatment protocol for anorexia. The book also provides an explanation for the increase of anorexia, and eating problems of all kinds, in women.

Foreword -- Introduction to the 1986 Edition -- Introduction to the 1993 Edition -- Part I -- Anorexia: Metaphor for our Time -- Situating Anorexia -- Starving Amidst Plenty -- The Breeding of Body Insecurity -- Hunger Strike -- Part II -- Towards a Model of Self-help: Themes to be Considered and Tackled -- Bridging the Chasm -- Food: From Poison to Palatable -- Focusing on the Body: The Corporeal Sense of Self -- Behind the Defence -- Medical Issues -- Afterword

Susie Orbach is a psychotherapist and writer. She co-founded the Women's Therapy Centre and Antidote, the organisation promoting emotional literacy and is a visiting Professor at the LSE. She has a practice seeing individuals and couples and consulting to organisations. Her numerous works include 'Fat is a Feminist Issue' (1978), 'Hunger Strike' (1986), 'The Impossibility of Sex' (1999), and 'On Eating' (2002).