Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #88392 in Books
• Published on: 1992-07-02
• Released on: 1992-07-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 205 pages

From Publishers Weekly
This is the fourth book ( Feeding the Hungry Heart, etc.) generated by the seminars Roth conducts at her Berkeley, Calif., home for people who believe that if they were thin, they would be happy. But the author makes clear that losing weight doesn't automatically gain one success, respect and love. Roth's personal story and those of her clients as related here exemplify the need to discover why the overweight are addicted to food. Citing her own deprived childhood, the author demonstrates that gluttons seek the reliable comforts of eating instead of closeness with humans who might become abusive (like her mother) or vanish (like her father). Those bent on self-improvement will find that the book merely repeats well-known principles in a melodramatic fashion.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Ingram
An examination of the link between eating disorders and the need for intimacy explains how eating disorders sabotage intimate relationships and why many people overeat to satisfy their emotional hunger. Reprint. 50,000 first printing.

Customer Reviews

Proceed With Extreme Caution
There is evidence that bingeing disorders can be caused by the taking of antidepressant medications (Seratonin Re-uptake Inhibitors, like Effexor, Prozac, etc.), because of the metabolic and neurological derangement these chemicals can produce. The effect can last for years after the client stops taking the drug. For people in this situation, psychological remedies of any kind are ineffective, and Roth's "eat what you want" method can be downright dangerous. If you have been prescribed antidepressant medication, and your compulsive eating began AFTER you began taking it, consider that this might be the cause. Proceed into theories like Roth's with extreme caution. To her credit, though, this book is a great read. It goes quickly and is full of interesting and often touching anecdotes. Her tone is gentle and compassionate.

A good read
This book was helpful to me in that it showed me there are others struggling with this problem. It also provided insight into the link between compulsive eating and childhood traumas.

While my childhood was nothing like Roth's, and a lot of what she has gone through I have not, I found this book helpful in coming to terms with my own eating compulsion issues.

It's dramatic and sometimes hard to relate to. I'm also finding some of the concepts difficult to grasp (I'm now reading it for the second time), but I believe the overarching ideas Roth presents are useful to those of us who've only recently diagnosed our eating compulsion issues.

wonderful book with great insight
Even if you aren't a compulsive eater, this book offers great insight into the world of addiction. It focuses on why we substitute food (or anything else) for love in your lives and examines events from our childhood as the reason for this inability to receive love from others. A great read, educational yet contains stories from the author's life, and others she has met, which keep it moving.