'Eating is pleasurable, eating is delicious, eating is sensual' says Susie. But for so many of us eating is associated with anguish and abstinence. From the first page this little book shows us how to think and feel differently about what we eat. So that we eat when we are hungry, eat what we want to eat to satisfy us and stop when we are full. Each page contains an easily absorbed bite-sized statement to transform eating that hurts into eating that nourishes and calms. This book isn't magic but it feels as if it is.

Susie Orbach is a psychotherapist arid writer. With Luise Eichenbaum she co-founded The Women's Therapy Centre in London in 1976 and in 1981 The Women's Therapy Centre Institute in New York. She lectures extensively in Europe and North America, is a visiting Professor at the London School of Economics, and has a practice seeing individuals and couples and consulting to organizations. She is a frequent contributor to newspapers and magazines, as well as to radio and television programmes. Her other books on eating problems are Fat is a Feminist Issue (1978), Fat is a Feminist Issue II (1982) and On Eating (2002). With Luise Eichenbaum she has written Understanding Women: A Feminist Psychoanalytic Account (1982), What do Women Want (1983) and Between Women (1988). She is also the author of What's Really Going on Here (1993), Towards Emotional Literacy (1999) and The Impossibility of Sex (1999).

Esteemed Psychotherapist and writer Susie Orbach diagnoses the crisis in our relationship to our bodies and points the way toward a process of healing. Throughout the Western world, people have come to believe that general dissatisfaction can be relieved by some change in their bodies. Here Susie Orbach explains the origins of this condition, and examines its implications for all of us. Challenging the Freudian view that bodily disorders originate and progress in the mind, Orbach argues that we should look at self-mutilation, obesity, anorexia, and plastic surgery on their own terms, through a reading of the body itself. Incorporating the latest research from neuropsychology, as well as case studies from her own practice, she traces many of these fixations back to the relationship between mothers and babies, to anxieties that are transferred unconsciously, at a very deep level, between the two. Orbach reveals how vulnerable our bodies are, how susceptible to every kind of negative stimulus--from a nursing infant sensing a mother's discomfort to a grown man or woman feeling inadequate because of a model on a billboard. That vulnerability makes the stakes right now tremendously high. In the past several decades, a globalized media has overwhelmed us with images of an idealized, westernized body, and conditioned us to see any exception to that ideal as a problem. The body has become an object, a site of production and commerce in and of itself. Instead of our bodies making things, we now make our bodies. Susie Orbach reveals the true dimensions of the crisis, and points the way toward healing and acceptance.

In this book I have struggled with certain words without a satisfactory conclusion. I am unhappy about all the words used to describe the person who visits the therapist's consulting room. Is she or he a patient? Well, sometimes yes. Certain individuals like that word because it captures for them the sense that there is something wrong, an emotional illness. Is she or he a client? Again, sometimes yes. Certain individuals like that word because it connotes a kind of consultative process. Is she or he an analysand? Certain individuals like this word because it conveys something about the process of a therapy and it has a symmetry: analyst–analysand. I myself find that all these words capture something about the therapy and the therapy process but are considerably less than perfect. In what follows I have chosen to use the words interchangeably, as well as the words psychotherapist, therapist and analyst. In the text, in the musings in italics, I have usually referred to the primary carer in the person's early life as mother. I realize that this is not always the case. There are fathers who have primary responsibility for their children from birth and there are relatives and nannies who fulfil this role. Rarely in my clinical experience of seeing adults has this role been an enterprise between two people in the way that it is becoming for some couples with children today. We have yet to see the effects of joint child-rearing on adult psychologies so I have retained the notion of the mother or mother substitute, a notion which will have to be expanded as the generations now raising children make new arrangements between them. I have also chosen for simplicity's sake to use the word 'she' throughout for the personal pronoun rather than 'she or he'.

This collection expands on Susie Orbach's claim that obsessive eating or non-eating behavior is an individual, albeit political, response to a "complex set of social circumstances" in which women find themselves. Theoretical pieces here bolster her views, exploring the neopuritanical replacement of sex by food, compulsive eating as anger, and symmetries between the bulimic and anorexic internalization of ego boundaries and strategies for control. Essays highlighting alternative therapies are full of case references and the compelling voices of sufferers.

We've all been there-angry with ourselves for overeating, for our lack of willpower, for failing at yet another diet that was supposed to be the last one. But the problem is not you, it's that dieting, with its emphasis on rules and regulations, has stopped you from listening to your body. Written by two prominent nutritionists, Intuitive Eating focuses on nurturing your body rather than starving it, encourages natural weight loss, and helps you find the weight you were meant to be. Learn: *How to reject diet mentality forever *How our three Eating Personalities define our eating difficulties *How to feel your feelings without using food *How to honor hunger and feel fullness *How to follow the ten principles of Intuitive Eating, step-by-step *How to achieve a new and safe relationship with food and, ultimately, your body With much more compassionate, thoughtful advice on satisfying, healthy living, this newly revised edition also includes a chapter on how the Intuitive Eating philosophy can be a safe and effective model on the path to recovery from an eating disorder.

Worldwide, an increasingly diverse and growing number of people are seeking therapy. We go to address past traumas, to break patterns of behaviour, to confront eating disorders or addiction, to talk about relationships, or simply because we want to find out more about ourselves. Susie Orbach has been a psychotherapist for over forty years. Also a million-copy bestselling author, The New York Times called her the 'most famous psychotherapist to have set up couch in Britain since Sigmund Freud'. Here, she explores what goes on in the process of therapy through a series of dramatized case studies. Insightful and honest about a process often necessarily shrouded in secrecy, In Therapy: The Unfolding Story is an essential read for those curious about, or considering entering, therapy. This complete edition takes us deeper into the world of therapy, with 13 further sessions and a new introduction.

Advancing the literature on a critical topic, this important new work illuminates the relationship between the anguish of eating disorder sufferers and the problems of ordinary women. The book covers a wide variety of issues - from ways in which gender may predispose women to eating disorders to the widespread cultural concerns these problems symbolize. Throughout, the psychology of women is reflected in the concepts and methods described; there is an explicit commitment to political and social equality for women; and therapy is reevaluated based on an understanding of the needs of women patients and the potentially differing contributions of male and female therapists. Providing valuable insights into the critical problem of eating disorders, this book is essential reading for clinicians and researchers alike. Also, by examining many of the ways in which women are affected by and respond to society's gender politics, the book may be used as a text in women's studies courses.

'Mesmerising . . . an extraordinary piece of writing.' - The i paper 'A layer cake of truth, pain and wisdom iced with charm. I loved it.' - Sue Perkins 'Painfully raw and incredibly funny' - Simon Amstell 'A book that offers many pleasures . . . hectically funny, eloquently angry.' - TLS 'Katy sees the world like no one else and deciphers it with extraordinary beauty. Delicacy took my breath away' - Lolly Adefope 'Heartbreaking, ridiculously clever and laugh out loud funny. One of the best books on trauma I've ever read' - Scarlett Curtis 'Fabulous story-telling and completely delicious writing' - Cariad Lloyd, host of Griefcast 'Katy is a stunning writer, seamlessly moving between bitingly funny moments and moments that make you violently, cathartically sob at 2am. An absolute belter of a book that stays with you' - Roisin Conaty 'Brilliantly original, funny and insightful. Dry and comic, but also very moving. I absolutely loved Delicacy' - Katy Brand 'Gentle, heartbreaking, laugh out loud funny and poetically told - an intimate memoir that stays with you' - Rose Matafeo 'A stunning book in which darkness and light, tragedy and humour, pain and hope are all masterfully, affectingly balanced' - Liam Williams 'Deeply comforting in how relatable it is, hilarious, and moving. I felt like this book was my best friend as soon as I started reading it' - Mae Martin 'Brimming with graceful, charming writing - this book perfectly encapsulates so many moments we face as girls and women and I only wish I'd read it sooner' - Kiri Pritchard-McLean 'Honest, raw, profound, deeply moving and funny' - Bridget Christie 'A deeply dark slice of comedic mastery' - Sarah Solemani 'An exquisite and important book. Delicacy is funny and sad and beautiful' - Maeve Higgins 'Katy has one of the most singular and enviable minds working today (and tomorrow)' - Jamie Demetriou, creator of Stath Lets Flats 'I loved this wry melancholy memoir and identified so much. Full of breathtaking intimacy and honesty, ultimately a comfort, this spoonful of wise and funny sugar helps the medicine of maturity go down.' - Alice Lowe From award-winning comedian and writer Katy Wix comes Delicacy - a different kind of memoir from an astonishing new voice. Twenty-one snapshots of a life - some staccato, raw and shocking, some expansive, meditative, and profound, underpinned with moments of startling humour that shatter the darkness - all beginning with a single memory. A memory of cake. The sickly royal icing marked the moment Katy found her voice. The madeira cake was the sun her group therapy sessions orbited. The 'missing cake' from a lost holiday has never let go. The Bara brith eaten in hospital after a life-altering car crash was as tough as the metal that hit her. The supermarket rock cake was where she 'practised wanting'. Shocking, raw, darkly funny and deeply humane, Katy Wix's exploration of trauma, grief, addiction, love, loss, memory and hope is truly unforgettable.