Starving in the silences : an exploration of anorexia nervosa /

This short book is not easy reading. Robertson assumes a fairly sophisticated audience with considerable background in French structuralist philosophy and feminist theory. She presents her own feminist perspective on anorexia nervosa intertwined with interpretations of selected theories of Foucault, Lacan, Irigary, and other great thinkers and writers. She also provides brief cultural history of such varied and yet related topics as fasting, health food, vegetarianism, diet, eating, hunger strikes, force feeding, anemia, holy anorexia, and sexual fears. Robertson helped this reviewer to better understand the female self-starver, a term she promotes over ^D["anorexic^D]" because the former exercises control over her own body while the latter suffers passively from a psychiatric illness from which she may not recover. Robertson's message is a very important one--that the self-starver needs to speak and write for herself in order to express her own pain, oppression, loneliness, etc. and not let the male-dominated medical profession describe her behavior and prescribe her treatment. Extensive bibliography and index; recommended to graduate students, researchers, and faculty in women's studies, and to mental health professionals.