Culture and Weight Consciousness - Softcover

Nasser, Mervat

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0415161533 ISBN 13: 9780415161534

Publisher: Routledge, 1997

Synopsis

Anorexia nervosa and bulimia are among the few psychiatric syndromes with a plausible socio-cultural model of causation. Issues of culture and slimness are usually considered in terms of the experience of the western world, but there is a growing body of research suggesting that concern with slimness is becoming more prevalent in non-western cultures.
In Culture and Weight Consciousness, Mervat Nasser brings together this research and looks at the recent emergence of eating disorders in cultures that were previously free of such problems. She relates the feminist theories that have been put forward to explain the phenomenon of eating disorders in the west to the condition of modern women in many non-western cultures and concludes that their position is not at all that different from that of their western counterparts. This leads her to address the current limitations of the concept of culture and draw out the implications for future research.

About this title

About the Author:

Mervat Nasser is Senior Lecturer in Psychiatry at the University of Leicester.

Review:

". . . interesting and timely . . . [Nasser] gives fascinating insights into the issues facing women seeking autonomy in cultures dominated by religious and other values. . . . [A] brief book with universal ambitions. . . . [A]ny student of eating disorders will find it both fascinating and provocative." -- The Lancet

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0415161533
• ISBN 13: 9780415161534
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 160