Making Weight: Healing Men's Conflicts with Food, Weight, and Shape

Rating:
Summary: Light Treatment
Review: Surprise surprise! Men have bodies, too; and what they see in their own glass or mental mirrors has as deep a sociological and psychological influence as for women. Inevitably, then, habitual use of food and exercise to control the personal impulses and cultural responses could never remain a "woman's problem." What will be regretable will be how many male deaths and destroyed lives it will take before that simple point does not have to be the main theme opening a book such as this...and then pretty much the only theme of substance that the authors seem interested in fleshing out throughout the rest of their superficial treatment of the subject. Before this book, material on male eating disorders was quite rare and frequently misguided; after this book, good material on male eating disorders remains just as rare as before. With the deep experience brought to the matter by all three respectable authors, that suggests a depressing prognosis for finding any understanding out there among less knowledgeable therapists and others in a position to support recovery. Sure, the book throws a wide net in the search for causes and recognizes the core of the issue in its suggestions for recovery; but in an attempt to reach a general public audience, they have gone so light-headed that they come off like quack doctors probing any place it might maybe hurt, then handing out snake oil for the remedy. Even with gender identity running so horribly ferociously through the problem for both sexes, men who suffer and the family and support systems helping them would do better at this point to look to any of the excellent books already published for women.

Rating:
Summary: Don't bother.
Review: This book is a big disappointment. Offers no valuable insights for men with eating disorders. Andersen is called the leading authority on this subject but I cannot fathom why this is so. Most likely, he and the other editors/authors just wanted to be the first to publish a book like this. Unfortunately, they were not up to the task. Hopefully, someone who understands this topic more will eventually publish a more useful book on the subject.

Rating:
Summary: Academy for Eating Disorders Review
Review: This book offers the lay person a comprehensive guide to weight and body image issues in men and promises to be a valuable resource for men and their families. The authors make compelling arguments for how and why these problems have increased for males over the last decade. The book is directed primarily toward men "who can't stand the way they look in the mirror, and the ones who are so driven for perfection that they neglect the deeper areas of life"(p.xiv). However, it is also intended for family and friends of such men and professionals who may treat them in clinical practice. The tone and style of the book would appeal a bit more to a lay audience than a professional one, and I think would make a good "recommended reading" for a therapist to offer to a client.

Overall, this book makes a very important contribution ... and one that you can recommend to your patients for an informative and insightful examination of men's concerns with weight and shape.

Rating:
Summary: Review by Joel Yager, M.D.
Review: You'd never suspect from looking at the cover articles of men's fitness magazines at your local newsstands, but until now men had cause to feel neglected by the body dissatisfaction mavens of the academic community. In contrast to the scores of books written about women's issues about their bodies, eating disorders, and related topics, the literature addressed to males has been thin indeed. Men with eating disorders can now feel cared about too.

Dr. Tom Holbrook's account of his own struggle with anorexia nervosa is a highlight of the book. This remarkably candid, self-revelatory story of an astute psychiatrist whose struggles permeated his medical and psychiatric training and subsequent practice is probably matchless in the annals of wounded healers.

The last sections concern recovery, dealing with topics from basic nutritional information designed to foster realistic dietary and meal planning for gaining (or losing) weight, to psychological, social and spiritual aspects of recovery.