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.

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Anorexia nervosa and bulimia are among the few psychiatric syndromes with a plausible socio-cultural model of causation. Issues of culture and slimness are usually considered in terms of the experience of the western world, but there is a growing body of research suggesting that concern with slimness is becoming more prevalent in non-western cultures.
In Culture and Weight Consciousness, Mervat Nasser brings together this research and looks at the recent emergence of eating disorders in cultures that were previously free of such problems. She relates the feminist theories that have been put forward to explain the phenomenon of eating disorders in the west to the condition of modern women in many non-western cultures and concludes that their position is not at all that different from that of their western counterparts. This leads her to address the current limitations of the concept of culture and draw out the implications for future research.
The cross-cultural and women's issues discussed in this book make it directly relevant to clinicians, researchers and all those interested in the links between culture, gender and health.

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The Female Body in Mind introduces new ways of thinking about issues of women's mental health assessment and treatment. Its multidisciplinary approach incorporates social, psychological, biological and philosophical perspectives on the female body.

The contributions, from notable academics in the field of women's mental health, examine the relationship between women's bodies, society and culture, demonstrating how the body has become a platform for women's expression of their distress and anguish. The book is divided into six sections, all centred on the theme of the body, covering:

• The body at risk.
• The hurting body.
• The reproductive body.
• The interactive body.
• Body-sensitive therapies.
• The body on my mind.

All professionals involved in women's mental health will welcome this exploration of the complexities involved in the relationship between women bodies and their mental health.