Sensing the Self: Women's Recovery from Bulimia - Tapa blanda

Shame is the villain and persistence the heroine in this analysis of 13 women who recovered from bulimia...Bolstering the stories of her subjects with other research and writings as well as her own clinical experience, the author detects a pattern that resembles, but does not mimic, the patterns of other addictions. What she found was a sense of shame, of being 'inadequate and bad'...[Sensing the Self] is sensitive, informative, and likely to be helpful to both client and therapist. Kirkus Reviews 20010401 Completed by an appendix on research on recovery and a thorough list of references, Reindl's book will sit well in collections strong on women's issues as well as eating disorders per se. -- Whitney Scott Booklist 20010415 Using clinical interviews conducted with women recovering from bulimia nervosa...Sheila Reindl has constructed a thought-provoking study that manages to be both scholarly and highly readable...In her clear analysis of the factors that contribute to the development of, and recovery from, bulimia, Reindl offers insights that will be appreciated by anyone who has experienced the ravages of an eating disorder either firsthand or through the suffering of a loved one...Distinguished by the respect and attention that Reindl pays to the voices of her subjects Sensing the Self ultimately succeeds in providing both clinicians and laypersons with an unusually patient-centered picture of the journey out of bulimia. -- Rebecca Sherman Radcliffe Quarterly 20010801 In a field that is overflowing with theories and therapies, this book offers a useful set of tools and insights about bulimia. Reindl interviewed and studied 13 women who met the clinical criteria for bulimia nervosa. She found that these women had difficulty sensing self-experience. In order to improve and recover from their debilitating and destructive behaviors, they needed to engage in a process of self-discovery that involves nine key components. In addition to certain standard approaches, such as learning to listen to one's body, the author includes factors unique to working with this population...[Sensing the Self] provides a very good examination of the complex components and issues involved in this life-threatening illness. -- R. Kabatznick Choice 20011101

Hearing about the destructive compulsion of bulimia nervosa, outsiders may wonder, "How could you ever start?" Those suffering from the eating disorder ask themselves in despair, "How can I ever stop?" How do you break the cycle of bingeing, vomiting, laxative abuse, and shame? While many books describe the descent into eating disorders and the resulting emotional and physical damage, this book describes recovery. Psychologist Sheila Reindl has listened intently to women's accounts of recovering. Reindl argues compellingly that people with bulimia nervosa avoid turning their attention inward to consult their needs, desires, feelings, and aggressive strivings because to do so is to encounter an annihilating sense of shame. Disconnected from internal, sensed experience, bulimic women rely upon external gauges to guide their choices. To recover, bulimic women need to develop a sense of self--to attune to their physical, psychic, and social self-experience. They also need to learn that one's neediness, desire, pain, and aggression are not sources of shame to be kept hidden but essential aspects of humanity necessary for zestful life. The young women with whom Reindl speaks describe, with great feeling, their efforts to know and trust their own experience. Perceptive, lucid, and above all humane, this book will be welcomed not only by professionals but by people who struggle with an eating disorder and by those who love them.