Praise for "Biting The Hand That Starves You". APA (Partial) Book Review by SuEllen Hamkins, M.D.

 

This is the book we have been waiting for. Anorexia is a pervasive mental health challenge affecting our brightest young women. Despite our best therapeutic efforts, anorexia still causes years of debility and ten percent of the time, death. With unfailing respect for those suffering, Maisel, Epston and Borden offer a fresh analysis of the etiology of anorexia and bulimia and give us effective new therapeutic tools. Readable and full of first-person accounts by girls and women dealing with anorexia, Biting the Hand that Starves You gives psychiatrists and clinicians in every therapeutic setting the theoretical framework and practice options needed to treat anorexia and bulimia...... Biting the Hand that Starves You is a welcome paradigm shift in the treatment of anorexia and bulimia. In my work with dozens of women dealing with anorexia/bulimia, I have found the narrative therapy approach of Maisel, Epston and Borden to be dramatically more effective than any other kind of treatment. Furthermore, their acknowledgement of anorexia as the confusing horror it is without blaming victims or parents is healing and refreshing. Patients and their families will find this book invaluable; the last section is specifically addressed to parents. If you are interested in compassionate, respectful and effective treatment of anorexia/bulimia, get this landmark book. Dr. Hamkins is a psychiatrist at the Carson Center in Westfield, Massachusetts. Biting the Hand that Starves You: Inspiring Resistance to Anorexia/Bulimia By Richard Maisel, David Epston, and Ali Borden; New York, W.W. Norton and Company, 2004.