W. Vandereycken - Böcker

The number of people in therapy has grown at an unprecedented rate over the last decade. Yet the dynamic between therapist and client remains an enigma. In Tales of Un-Knowing, Ernesto Spinelli presents eight tales of a therapeutic approach that has proven highly effective in assisting troubled individuals in confronting the problems of everyday life. According to Spinelli, therapy at its most fundamental level involves the act of revealing and reassessing the "life stories" that clients tell themselves in order to establish or maintain meaning in their lives. The role of the therapist is not only to listen, but to help the client to explicate and reconstruct this life story. Tales of Un-Knowing presents the lives of eight individuals whose experiences illuminate a variety of dilemmas and anxieties that most of us encounter at different points in our lives. We meet a man who refuses to grow old gracefully, a woman who fears that she is only loved for her body, and an octogenarian who lives simultaneously in the present and in the past.We also meet Giles, whose obsessive identification with Einstein led him to theorize about his sex until it became a "living mathematics" full of enthralling permutations and combinations. In the course of the book Spinelli tackles head on the last great taboo of therapeutic practice--sexual attraction between therapist and client. Existential therapy, then, requires that the therapist experience life through the client's eyes. This frequently leads to challenges to the therapist's own ways of being, and the underlying values, beliefs, and assumptions that maintain them. The term "un-knowing" refers to the challenge to the therapist, who must force him or herself to remain open to new interpretations of that which is familiar, and to treat the seemingly familiar as novel, unfixed in meaning, and accessible to previously unexamined possibilities.

A survey of modern approaches to the prevention of eating disorders which argues that models of prevention as opposed to treatment are conceptually flawed. The book addresses general approaches and dilemmas, and then provides examples of concrete strategies and projects aimed at prevention.

Few topics in the field of eating disorders engender as much emotional debate as that of prevention. Too often, preventative plans against eating disorders are highly praised, but not carried out in practical actions. It is often easier and more immediately fulfilling to focus on treatment and not to wait for the long-term effects of prevention, despite the fact that treatment alone does nothing to reduce the incidence of eating disorders.The Prevention of Eating Disorders offers a survey of modern approaches to eating disorder prevention, arguing that models of prevention as opposed to treatment are conceptually flawed.The first half of the volume addresses general approaches and dilemmas, including feminist and participatory approaches to the problem and the role played by fashion magazines and television in promoting risk factors such as thin ideal body images and dieting. The second half provides examples of concrete strategies and projects aimed at prevention, including school based programs, approaches to early identification and prevention by general practitioners, and the principles of screening programs.

Research and Treatment in the Psychobiology of Bulimia Nervosa 1 2 K. M. Pirke and W. Vandereycken When we were preparing this book, the main purpose was to gather the latest in­ sights from both basic and clinical research in bulimic disorders. The burgeoning scientific interest in eating disorders forced us to restrict the focus in such a way that attention was only paid to psychobiological aspects of (disturbed) nutrition and be­ havior. This implied that other important aspects, like sociocultural and familial fac­ tors, had to be excluded. But it turned out that even with such a restricted scope the subject was not an easy one. A review of the contributions to this volume clearly shows that our present understanding of bulimia nervosa is still very small. Reviewing the hypothalamic and especially neuroendocrine regulation of nutrient balance, Bray has emphasized the importance of the autonomic nervous system in regulating food intake and energy expenditure. The role of insulin, adrenal steroids, gonadal steroids, and growth hormone in modulating nutrient intake and storage were discussed. The studies by Jimerson et aI. , Schweiger et aI. , and Fichter et al. show that all these factors are altered in bulimic patients, indicating that the whole system of regulating food intake and storage is severely disturbed in bulimia nervosa. Evidence has been presented that neurotransmitter alterations may occur in bulimia: Jimerson et al.

More and more clinicians as well as researchers realize thatanorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa often are extremelydifficult to treat and that the short-term outcome can bevery misleading. In many cases these disordersprevail for along period of time and can have serious consequences forthe patient's further life. This book gives a detailed over-view oftoday's knowledge regarding the long-term outcome ofthe treatment of anorexic and bulimic patients, many of whomwere treated in highly spezialized centers. Experts from bo-th Europe and the U.S. report on theirmost recent research.Their studies include medical as well as psychosocial andpsychiatric aspects of eating disorders. Clinicians withlong experience in the treatment of eating disorder patientsdiscuss the important practical implications of these rese-arch findings. The information given in this book is helpfulfor both treatment and prevention of eating disorders.Finally, concrete guidelines show as how to conduct furtherfollow-up studies in this field.