from Publisher's Weekly: This posthumous collection of case material illustrates the treatment modality successfully employed by psychiatrist Bruch with patients suffering from the eating disorder of anorexia. Two of her associates at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston have edited this final work, taped by the author before her death in 1984. Bruch makes the reader privy to the therapeutic transaction between her patients who are in what she describes as "the relentless pursuit of thinness.'' Emphasizing the conversational ambiance of the therapy and discounting heretofore unsuccessful approaches of psychoanalysis and behavior modification, she helped her patients to heal. The dramatic dialogues in the cases presented allow us to hear these desperate young anorexic women individually explore their thwarted development, under the direction of a compassionate physician who guides them towards wellness. from Library Journal: Psychiatrist Bruch was a pioneer in developing psychotherapy for anorexia victims. Author of half a dozen books, her first work, Eating Disorders, appeared 15 years ago. She taped her interactions with clients, and these form the nucleus of this final book. Bruch's strength is her straightforward writing: it is honest, simple, and effective.

Publicado por primera vez hace mas de veinte anos, con gran exito de ventas, LA JAULA DORADA dorada es un libro clasico sobre la anorexia nerviosa. Escrito en un estilo directo y accesible, huyendo en todo momento de las dificultades de la terminologia medica, ofrece testimonios de pacientes reales que nos cuentan su experiencia con la enfermedad y su recuperacion. La autora, una experta psicologa clinica, describe la obsesion por la delgadez y la busqueda de la superioridad en la negacion de uno mismo, que caracteriza a la anorexia nerviosa. Fruto de sus observaciones, Bruch destaca la importancia de un diagnostico temprano y narra la historia de este desorden enigmatico con un estilo elegante y preciso, que combina con gran habilidad la divulgacion y el rigor. En la actualidad, los desordenes de la alimentacion se han convertido en algo demasiado familiar. A pesar de ello, este libro no solo se erige en una herramienta imprescindible para pacientes, padres, estudiantes y terapeutas, sino que es sencillamente "el mejor libro sobre el tema," como afirma Shervert H. Frazier, doctora en el McLean Hospital, de la Escuela Medica de la Universidad de Harvard.

First published more than twenty years ago, with almost 150,000 copies sold, The Golden Cage is still the classic book on anorexia nervosa, for patients, parents, mental health trainees, and senior therapists alike. Writing in direct, jargon-free style, often quoting her patients' descriptions of their own experience of illness and recovery, Bruch describes the relentless pursuit of thinness and the search for superiority in self-denial that characterizes anorexia nervosa. She emphasizes the importance of early diagnosis and offers guidance on danger signs. Little-known when this groundbreaking book was first published, eating disorders have become all too familiar. Sympathetic and astute, The Golden Cage now speaks to a new generation.

The synthesis of forty years of pioneering work by the world's leading authority on the emotional aspects of eating disorders."The definitive book on eating disorders....It is a classic."- Shervert H. Frazier, M.D., Harvard Medical School

Hilde Bruch sets out to accomplish what has, until now, been virtually impossible - the teaching of psychotherapy by use of the written word, communicating the wisdom of a lifetime. Perhaps Dr. Bruch's unique success at a task that has been tried and tried again, only to result in stereotyped do's and don'ts, stems from her own learning experiences with two great teachers: Harry Stack Sullivan and Frieda Fromm-Reichmann.

Dr. Bruch shares her knowledge of the essential purpose of intensive psychotherapy as it has been shaped over her many years as a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and teacher. She sets forth a theoretical frame in straightforward and unmystical language without minimizing the complexities of demand that therapy makes on both patient and therapist.

The reader accompanies the therapist from his first encounter with the stranger who comes to him with his trouble through the various steps that lead to the resolution of the problems. The patient is viewed as a participant in a multifaceted system of many experiences and people, not as an individual isolated from the world around him. In Dr. Bruch's conception, psychotherapy is a situation where two people interact and try to come to an understanding of one another, with the specific goal of accomplishing something beneficial for the complaining person. The factors that help or hinder the attainment of this interaction are spelled out in the book, and the entire process of learning psychotherapy is thereby illumination.