Eating Disorders and Cultures in Transition

by Mervat Nasser (Editor), Melanie Katzman (Editor), Richard Gordon (Editor)

Overview

Eating disorders: do they mark cultural transition?

Eating disorders that were once viewed as exclusive to specific class and ethnic boundaries in western culture are now spreading worldwide. This issue is fully discussed in this groundbreaking volume.

Eating Disorders and Cultures in Transition is written by an international group of authors to address the recent emergence of eating disorders in various areas of the world including countries in South America, Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe. It offers an in-depth analysis of the existing socio-cultural model arguing for the need to extend both our theoretical understanding and clinical work to account properly for this global phenomenon. Eating disorders are seen as reflecting sweeping changes in the social and political status of women in the majority of societies that are now undergoing rapid cultural transition.

This multidisciplinary, multinational volume reflects wide-ranging, intellectually stimulating and frequently provocative viewpoints. It promises to be of great interest to medical and mental health professionals, public policy experts and all those watching for the processes of cultural transformation and their impact on mental health.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781134585236
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	09/02/2003
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	471 KB

About the Author

Mervat Nasser, Melanie Katzman, Richard Gordon

Table of Contents

Gordon, Eating Disorders East and West: A Culture-bound Syndrome Unbound. Commentators: Palmer, Van Esterik. Szabo, Le Grange, Eating Disorders and the Politics of Identity. Commentators: Swartz, Skårderud. Lee, Fat Phobia in Anorexia Nervosa - Whose Obsession Is It? Commentators: Littlewood, Fabrega, Jnr. Bulik, Eating Disorders: Integrating Nature and Nurture Through the Study of Twins. Commentators: Park, Gorwood. Rathner, Post-communism and the Marketing of the Thin Ideal. Commentators: Gotbaum. Bisaga. Cantina, Emerging Markets..Submerging Women. Commentators: Eisler, King Vance. Roggiero, One Country: Two Cultures. Commentators: Neumärker, Bauer. Meehan, Katzman, Argentina: The Social Body at Risk. Commentators: Piran, Gunew. Nasser, Di Nicola, Changing Bodies, Changing Cultures: An Intercultural Dialogue on the Body as the Final Frontier. Commentators: MacLeod, Mumford.

Editorial Reviews

3 Stars from Doody

Reviewer: Raj Tummala, MD (Wyeth Pharmaceuticals)
Description: This book addresses the recent emergence of eating disorders in various areas of the world, particularly in the newly developing parts of Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe, with a special emphasis on cultural, social, and economic perspectives. This book debates the current sociocultural model and argues that this complex array of disorders is more than a simple appearance-based concern.
Purpose: The purpose is to provide an international perspective to eating disorders outside of the western phenomenon. It addresses various issues such as the validity of prevalence rates of eating disorders throughout the world, the implications of genetic research, the marketing of thinness in post-communist societies. This is a very useful addition to the available resources and the book largely meets its overall objective.
Audience: This book is targeted at medical professionals, psychiatrists, psychologists, researchers, and others involved with patients suffering from eating disorders.
Features: There are nine chapters detailing eating disorders from a global perspective with new theories to evaluate and understand them. The book takes a multidisciplinary and multinational approach where each topic is written by a local authority and followed by a commentary by two experts. Each chapter has extensive references pertinent to the local geography of the area involved.
Assessment: This is a very useful addition on the problem of eating disorders. This is the first book that analyzes this group of disorders from an international perspective and debates the present theories for the development of eating disorders. It is a good book for anyone interested in the epidemiology of eating disorders.

Doody's Review Service

'This book offers an appreciation of the complexity of the forces that shape human behaviour, and influence the constructs we hold regarding health and pathology.' - Sunita Stewart, PhD, Director of Cross-Cultural Research, Bob Smith MD Centre for Research in Pediatric Psychiatry, UT Southwestern Medical Centre at Dallas, USA

'This book is a milestone as it is the first to open a dialectical debate.' - Professor Janet Treasure, Guys Kings and Thomas Medical School, UK

'Moves beyond the safe harbour of cataloguing scientific evidence from the perspective of only one discipline and invites the reader to imagine new paradigms and research methods.' - Ruth Striegel-Moore, Professor of Psychology, Weslyn University, USA

From the Publisher