Includes bibliographical references (pages 131-136) and index
"This book shows how anorexia nervosa must be considered in its social and cultural contexts in order to be understood and treated." "The author examines the historical context as well as the contemporary, ongoing debates about anorexia nervosa to demonstrate how current practices are continually influenced and modified by medicine, psychology, ideology and politics." "This book clearly and comprehensively illustrates the need to re-evaluate anorexia nervosa. By drawing on the insights of discourse theory, feminism and postmodernism, the author points the way to a new understanding of the condition and, by extension, of those who suffer from it."--Jacket