In this highly significant book Domenico Cosenza shows us refusal may be torned into a way forward. Through his remarkable insights, he shows us how it is paradoxically in the impasse that it presents that a solution to anorexia may be found.
Prof. Francois Ansermet, psychoanalyst, member of the WAP, Emeritus Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Universities of Geneva and Loussanne.
Domenico Cosenza incisively surveys the full spectrum of literature of anorexia - psychiatry, psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, Lacan, and the contemporary Lacanian Orientation and draws on his own clinical experience in many settings, and those of colleagues, to provide the clinician a much-needed framework for working with patientswith anorexia. That alone makes this book a must-buy, but Cosenza also highlights how the study of anorexia, alongside other eating disorders and addiction, is necessary in reforging a clinic for today's civilisation.
Thomas Svolos, MD, New Lacanian School and Creighton University School of Medicine.
A Lacanian Reading of Anorexia is one of the finest contemporary contributions by a psychoanalyst to the theoretical understanding and treatment of anorexia nervosa. The analysis of rejection, the core symptom of this life-threatening psychosomatic disorder, is enlightening for psychodynamically oriented psychotherapists and those who follow other theoretical-clinical approaches.
Massimo Cuzzolaro, formerly Sapienza University of Rome; Past President, SISDCA; Founding Editor-in-Chief of Eating and Weight Disorders. Studies on Anorexia, Bulimia, and Obesity.
You find in your hands, a rare and exceptional book. Domenico Cosenza has given as a veritable treasure; a distillation on the best psychoanalytic thinking on anorexia. Based on years of intensive work with anorexic patients both in Italian community-based institutions and private practice, and firmly grounded in the work of Jacques Lacan, Cosenza's book brings a well-organized account of theory and clinical articulation to English-speaking audiences. A landmark tour de force by a highly regarded analyst that firmly establishes a Lacanian perspective on this crucial clinical issue, setting the tone for any future work on anorexia.
Fernando Castrillon, personal and supervising psychoanalyst, editor-in-chief the European Journal of Psychoanalysis
Cosenza addresses eating disorders without getting stuck in Lacanian jargon for initiated ones, in a way that is both fresh but at the same time rigorous. An excellent clinical approach, which always involves theoretical interrogations.
Sergio Benvenuto, psychoanalyst, founder of the European Journal of Psychoanalysis
Domenico Cosenza's book will be helpful to clinicians for treating 'the psychological wall' that anorexic patients build, brick by brick, to detach themselves from the Other. In according to a Lacanian perspective, Cosenza emphasizes a clinical work focused on the role of 'the word' in order to develop in these patients their 'desire' to go beyond the wall of anorexia. It is a must-read book.
Giuseppe Craparo, psychoanalyst and professor of Clinical Psychology at the Kore University of Enna, Italy.
