Food for Thought:

Perspectives on Eating Disorders

People develop food, weight and body image problems for reasons that are as individual as they are. In this book, I share the stories of many women and men who struggle with eating disorders, showing the humanity and courage of those who seek to change their relationship to food by healing themselves.

I provide research-based explanations and challenge several myths and beliefs about eating disorders. This book is for anyone interested in learning more about the subject of disordered eating, and provides information, inspiration and hope.

Food for Thought:

Perspectives on Eating Disorders

People develop food, weight and body image problems for reasons that are as individual as they are. In this book, I share the stories of many women and men who struggle with eating disorders, showing the humanity and courage of those who seek to change their relationship to food by healing themselves.

I provide research-based explanations and challenge several myths and beliefs about eating disorders. This book is for anyone interested in learning more about the subject of disordered eating, and provides information, inspiration and hope.

Food for Thought

Food for Thought offers fresh psychoanalytic insights into treating clients with eating disorders. In lively and jargon-free language, Nina Savelle-Rocklin breaks down the psychoanalytic approach to give practitioners and general readers alike a deeper understanding of the theory and effective treatment of eating disorders to achieve lasting change and true healing.

Beyond the Primal Addictiont

Dr. Nina co-edited (with Dr. Salman Akhtar) “Beyond The Primal Addiction”, which covers many types of addictive behaviors. Her chapter of “Food Addiction” challenges beliefs about the nature of food addiction and provides hope for change.

Mistrust

(Collaborator)

This book examines trust and mistrust in psychotherapy. Dr. Nina contributes a chapter about trust and mistrust in the clinical setting, explaining why it’s so difficult for so many of us to trust others, including our own therapists, and providing strategies for what to do differently.

Freud and the Buddha

(Collaborator)

This book investigates what psychoanalysis and Buddhism can learn from each other, and offers chapters by a Buddhist scholar, a psychiatrist-author, and a number of leading psychoanalysts. It begins with a discussion of the basic understanding of both psychoanalysis and Buddhism, viewed not as a religion but as a psychology…

Here’s what people are saying about my book:

Much needed book

By Amazon Customer on December 24, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This book is essential for anyone struggling with disordered eating and/or body image, not only because Dr. Nina's credentials as a psychoanalyst and thought leader in the field inform her writing and perspective (which is far from the usual - her belief that "it's not what you eat, it's what's eating at you" is at the heart of her approach), but because she approaches this terrible and challenging issue from a human, empathetic and reassuring direction, and it makes for a remarkably comforting read. By sharing stories of those who dealt with disordered eating and body image, sought help and made a new life for themselves, Dr. Nina provides information and support. It's written in a way that the lay person can easily access, and the treating professional can benefit from. Quite the accomplishment, and highly recommended.

An exemplary book by a thought and practice pioneer in this field.

By Andrea Kobliner on January 2, 2017

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This insightful book is well written and free of the tedious jargon that plagues many books about psychoanalysis. Writing from the perspective of an active practitioner, the author advances a standard of excellence on many plains: 1) an in-depth description and clarification about current relational psychoanalysis approaches in contrast to earlier theories; 2) a thorough body of research that evidences the potential effectiveness of psychoanalysis as a viable treatment for eating disorders; and 3) the astute application of clinical experience enlivened by poignant and relevant case examples to support her conclusions. While outstanding and full of merit, these elements are not what distinguishes this book as a stand out in current literature. It is the addition of an introspective fourth dimension where Dr. Nina generously shares her own analytical and emotional responses to patient interactions. This approach humanizes the book and offers valuable insights that inform the patient-analyst dynamic in a way that elucidates the benefits of counter-transference and authenticity for the ultimate success of therapy.

A Superb Book

By Arthur Asa Berger on December 31, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This book is very well written and highly accessible even though it also scholarly--built on a solid foundation of psychoanalytic research. Food for Thought shows that Dr. Savelle-Rocklin is a clinician who cares deeply about the people she's helping. She brings her knowledge of psychoanalytic theory to life in a way that in informative and, ultimately, hopeful.

Accessible and Illuminating.

By Newton on January 7, 2017

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This book presents the reader with a sophisticated and clear understanding of how problems with eating can reveal and express a wide variety of personal conflicts and interruptions in development. Through clear and instructive presentations of her clinical work with patients combined with an expert understanding of psychoanalytic theory and treatment, Dr. Savelle-Rocklin has contributed a book which is both accessible and illuminating. Bravo.

Shines an important light on a very internal struggle

By Rochelleon on January 15, 2017

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

The internal dynamics of an eating disorder make it challenging for friends and families to fully appreciate. Support systems are kept at bay and will often walk on eggshells in order to do the "right thing," in spite of not knowing what that "right thing," might be. Nina Savelle-Rocklin's book is a welcome portal into the hearts and minds of those in the clutches of an eating disorder -- it is particularly effective because of the first person narratives as well as Rocklin's very clear and compelling "storytelling" in a voice that doesn't pander but still manages to simplify the complex. If you are close to someone whose eating disorder has taken over -- or if you are working through your own challenges in relation to food and body image -- this is an insightful work of great empathy written by a professional with extensive experience. Savelle-Rocklin tackles the topic from a number of angles - many of which are seldom addressed in less nuanced works on the subject.

Food For Thought Fed My Soul.

By iris ruth pastor on February 14, 2017

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I believe people and books appear in your life when you are ready to receive their wisdom. I was bulimic for 46 years, went for treatment and actually today – Valentine Day – I am celebrating being five years binge and purge free.

I always resisted calling my bulimia more than just a bad habit. Until I read Food for Thought. The book dispelled my resistance dramatically to delving deeper into the origins of my disordered eating patterns.

Dr. Savelle-Rocklin states: "Bulimia is a symptom that contains and expresses a plethora of meanings; it can be understood as a defense against painful emotional experience, an expression of ambivalence, an attempt at mastery, and a means of self-regulation."

That is only a taste of the mind-blowing tidbits of information sprinkled throughout Food for Thought, many of which are drawn from examples of different patients battling with eating, weight and body image.

I have a ton of books on my bookshelves. But this is one I keep close.

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