Famine in the Family

Reviews the book "The Development of Anorexia Nervosa: The Hunger Artists" by Sylvia Brody (covered in its original form in record 2002-02732-000). In her latest work she examines two symptomatic females--participants in a large longitudinal study of babies from birth to age 30--and attempts to trace the psychogenic sources of their eating disorders and of anorexia nervosa in general. The resulting volume is especially noteworthy because its author aligns herself with classical psychoanalysis, a community traditionally lacking in empirical research, particularly regarding etiologic and pathogenic theories of neurosis. Freud and his followers trace pathology to childhood, and Brody ambitiously attempts to test this complex model by linking her formulations to ostensible patterns initiated in earliest infancy. The reviewer comments that at time Brody alternately makes too much or too little out of her data. Additionally, Brody fairly abandons her data in her concluding remarks about societal norms and the development of anorexia. Nonetheless, we owe Brody a great debt not only in her attempt to search out and validate many of the psychoanalytic notions regarding anorexia, but moreover in her bringing these concepts to life for us on the page. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)