The Golden Cage: The Enigma of Anorexia Nervosa, with a New Foreword by Catherine Steiner-Adair, Ed.D.

by Hilde Bruch

Book Overview

First published more than twenty years ago, with almost 150,000 copies sold, The Golden Cage is still the classic book on anorexia nervosa, for patients, parents, mental health trainees, and senior therapists alike. Writing in direct, jargon-free style, often quoting her patients' descriptions of their own experience of illness and recovery, Bruch describes the relentless pursuit of thinness and the search for superiority in self-denial that characterizes anorexia nervosa. She emphasizes the importance of early diagnosis and offers guidance on danger signs. Little-known when this groundbreaking book was first published, eating disorders have become all too familiar. Sympathetic and astute, The Golden Cage now speaks to a new generation.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674005848
• ISBN13: 9780674005846
• Release Date: May 2001
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Length: 174 Pages
• Weight: 0.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.9" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Looking for the personality that precedes anorexia

I was looking to find the personality behind anorexia before I recognized that my 7-year-old niece was well on her way in terms of personality. (If the anoretic in a large family is known as the snitch, no-one would recognize that in the usual small family.) I've read any number of books about anorexia, but none more sympathetic from an outsiders view. Unfortunately, most books on the subject are written by anoretics. It's a stretch to believe that they can be objective about their own condition. But they have lived it. There are never solid comments such as "no sense of humor" or having a "tiny little voice". These are physical manifestations that can be easily recognized. I think that's important.

descriptive account of anorexia nervosa

empathic portrayal of anorexia nervosa by a pioneer in the field; it has human descriptives of everything characterized scientifically in textbooks and journals.

Not just

This book was extremely informative about the underlying causes of eating disorders. It gave me a better understanding for how they can develop in the home, how parental pressures at a young age can have a huge influence, and also supports the fact that you don't have to have a tragic up bringing to be subject to an eating disorder.

A must read for any parent with a mentally ill daughter

A remarkable description of the basic personality and family mechanisms involved in teenage mental disorders and their anorectic expression.