Gaining: The Truth About Life After Eating Disorders Book

I had mixed feelings about this book. It's easy to absorb and follow and she's writing about a topic that is addressed so little in the literature, that it's important. It's a start. I found myself struggling with personality categories that seemed too distinct, too limited, and too inflexible. Three to be exact. I wondered about diversity, in terms of class and race, and who exactly she was interviewing demographically. I also felt like there was too much emphasis on perfectionism, for it certainly doesn't characterize every person who's had and eating disorder, including those with anorexia.

While I think the inclusion of biology, personality/temperament are really important, I also think the cultural patriachal climate we live in is also vital to understand for its contribution and I think she needs to delve more into that. And by cultural patriachal climate I don't mean passing reference to the propagation of a thin ideal in advertising, I mean deconstructing sexism, objectification, power/powerlessness of women, and much more.

I enjoyed the anecdotes and only wish she could have included more in terms of what women who've found some sense of normalcy have done in their own processes to get there. Overall, I'd recommend it, I think it adds an important new dimension to the field and it leaves us with a great starting point from which to dig deeper.