Starving for Salvation
The Spiritual Dimensions of Eating Problems Among American Girls and Women
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Oxford University Press Inc
Published:30th Sep '99
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
This hardback is available in another edition too:
- Paperback£29.49(9780195151664)
Presently, doctors and psychiatrists are professing their inability to develop theoretical approaches that lead to effective clinical methods to help women suffering from eating disorders. Michelle Lelwica puts forward a hypothesis that has both theoritical and clinical implications. She identifies eating disorders as a specifically religious problem and contends that it can be addressed with religious resources. She argues that the remnants of religious legacies that have historically effaced the diversity and complexity of women's spiritual yearnings and struggles are alive and well under the guise of a host of "secular" practices, pictures and promises. Until these legacies are recognized, contested, and changed, she predicts, many girls and women will continue to turn to the symbolic and ritual resources most readily available to them --- food and their bodies --- in a passionate but precarious quest for freedom and fulfilment.
She is honest and open about her own experience of an eating disorder: her self-exposure and that of others is powerful and challenging. * The Heythrop Journal, vol. 42, no. 4 *
argued with skill and sophistication ... takes a balanced approach ... articulates valuable, sometimes provocative, ideas * The Heythrop Journal, vol. 42, no. 4 *
Lelwica ... has undoubtedly made a valuable contribution to thinking about eating disorders from a religio-cultural perspective. * The Heythrop Journal, vol. 42, no. 4 *
A complex, challenging and rewarding read. * Sandra Collins, RRT, Vol.7, Iss.4, 9/00. *
The strength of Lelwica's approach is the way she draws [all these] threads together, identifies common themes and offers a strategy for an integrated, multidisciplinary approach ... a rich resource for a wide range of interested groups, and no only those concerned with eating disorders. * Sandra Collins, RRT, Vol.7, Iss.4, 9/00. *
this is a thorough and creative book. Lelwica engages critically with a number of different disciplines, and raises questions which reflect concerns in the wider field of mental health and scial justice, in America, the UK and Australia. * Sandra Collins, RRT, Vol.7, Iss.4, 9/00. *
I was impressed by Lelwica's disclosure of her own experience of bulminia as a young woman ... To my mind, this goes much farther than simply sharing experience. Given the level of stigma associated with eating problems and mental illness, it is a powerful statement of solidarity and reflects her view of the political dimensions of spirituality. * Sandra Collins, RRT, Vol.7, Iss.4, 9/00. *
ISBN: 9780195127430
Dimensions: 157mm x 236mm x 25mm
Weight: 528g
224 pages