Hunger Strike: The Anorectic's Struggle as a Metaphor for Our Age

Asserting that social forces have contributed to the epidemic of anorexia nervosa during the last 20 years, psychologist Orbach, author of Fat Is a Feminist Issue, argues that sufferers must come to terms with psychological pressures against which they protest by starving themselves. Addressing both patients and therapists, Orbach cites cases of anorectics of all ages and personalities to demonstrate that the defeminizing of their bodies through anorexia is an unconscious attempt to deal with the contrasting roles of sex object, super-mom and career woman that society expects them to play. She equates today's anorectics' refusal to eat with hunger strikes by suffragettes. Orbach also strongly advocates self-help measures, with the aid ofa support group. Her message: eating habits should be modified voluntarily, and only after the negative outside pressures have been understood by the anorectic. (February 24)