The Golden Cage

by Hilde Bruch

In this text, a renowned psychiatrist (recognized as one of the world's leading authorities on anorexia nervosa) relates her experience and discoveries in dealing with this baffling disorder. It is not, as the name implies, simply a loss of appetite. Rather, it involves a relentless pursuit of excessive thinness, undertaken despite continual hunger, acute pain, and occasionally fatal consequences. The victims of anorexia are mostly adolescent and preadolescent girls who have otherwise been model children from "good homes." Often they feel trapped by unattainable goals and expectations--a "golden cage" of privilege where they feel they do not belong and cannot survive. The author uses numerous examples from her own case studies to give a vivid picture of the causes, effects, and possible treatment of the disease.