"The Body Myth: Adult Women and the Pressure to be Perfect" by Margo Maine, Joe Kelly

Reviewer: Linda

While this is not the most well-written book I have read, it is thought provoking. Aimed generally at eating disorders that cause women to starve themselves (anorexia or bingeing and purging) it has some applicability to anyone with an eating disorder. The book concentrates mostly on the media and the “body myth” from there, i.e., all women should look like teenager boys but with big boobs.

The author lets us understand some of the processes of therapy without the therapist. There are exercises intended to help us, as adults, to evaluate what we were told as children about weight and body image. There are also exercises to help remember how we felt when told those things. The insights just from reading the exercises were interesting; doing them would likely result in real revelations.

Here’s a quote that I saved:

“The next time you feel a food binge or a shopping frenzy coming on, stop and ask: What am I really hungry for? I may be harder to answer than you imagine, but that answer is what will truly satisfy your appetite for living.”

All in all, an interesting book.