Recently revised and updated and containing extensive critical research, Elena Faccio's book addresses the historical and symbolic origins of a widespread cultural phenomenon. The text compares and contrasts current models of interpretation, provides an in-depth guide for intervention, and highlights the strengths and weaknesses of a variety of diagnostic instruments, theories and possible treatment plans, Nevertheless the author recognises the limited role that research can play in understanding and treatment of the disorder. The book thus tackles medical, environmental, physiological, aesthetic and genetic factors which might play their part in the development of eating disorders. This is a major strength of the book. A further key point to recommend it is that the author manages to make a complex subject relatively simple without ever losing sight of the intricate and individual nature of the disorder. Thus students, researchers, psychologists and clinical practitioners as well as the general reader, should find much in the book which will stimulate them.