...Provides a unique window into the fear and anxieties of the seriously ill patient. The mysteries of the inner, unexpressed thoughts of the patient are a constant challenge for understanding in a hospital setting.... This thoughtful and compassionate book opens the door of revelation and should help all of us. Jerome J. DeCosse, M.D., Chairman, Dept. of Surgery, Memorial Hospital, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

As fish must swim so must man drink and eat Titus Petronius Arbiter Examine thy customs of diet Francis Bacon For John eat & drank to drive away Loves pain But all he could do he grew thinner & thinner Tho he eat & drank as much as Ten men for dinner Some said he had a Wolf in his stomach day and night William Blake To paraphrase and cast in contemporary speech observations of the Gothic-era monk Bernard of Clairvaux, the eating disorders may be viewed as a corruption of the social process, a distortion of the body image, and a perversion of bodily processes. It is this multifactorial etiology that makes the diagnosis and treatment of dietary -disorders so difficult and frustrating. Because of social demands and a distorted (body) image, men and women have perverted the simple act of eating into always painful, sometimes tragic, and occasionally deadly outcomes. The eating disorders fall into three categories. There is obesity-the overconsumption of food, and its antithesis, anorexia-the act of vol untary starvation. In true Hegelian fashion, there follows the synthesis, bulimia-the voluntary purging of overconsumed amounts of food to produce an anorectic-like countenance. As the contributing authors em phasize in their chapters, these diseases are not unique to contemporary culture. Rather they are cultural artifacts, created by both men and women, since classical antiquity. The recognition of these diseases is dependent upon recognizing a disease actually exists: that there is a distortion of the eating process."

The book not only issues a warning but alerts concerned adults to signs of suicidal depression in adolescents. There is always a moment of shock, or horror and for any parent, of fear when a teenager chooses suicide. How could this happen? Didn't his parents know he was so depressed? She was so pretty, such a high achiever what went wrong? Andrew Slaby, a psychiatrist specializing in depression and crisis intervention, and Lili Garfinkel, a parent educator, shed light on these perplexing questions. They present psychological profiles of eight severely depressed adolescents who either attempted or committed suicide. In reading the teens' journals and talking with their family and friends, they found that the severity of their distress was missed, not because people around them didn't care, but because they didn't know what to look for, what questions to ask, or how to respond effectively. In addition to sharing these families' stories, the authors offer guidelines for recognizing and working with suicidal youth. In alerting readers to the factors that may lead to suicide, this book will literally save lives."