Not Just Bread Alone: A review of Surviving an Eating Disorder: Strategies for Families and Friends (3rd ed.) by Michele Siegel, Judith Brisman, & Margot Weinshel. New York:  HarperCollins, 2009,  274 pp.

Survivors Evoke Awe, admiration, and empathy for their triumph over the unbearable. Survivorship provides an identity and path for organizing personal narratives of affliction experienced by family members and friends of eating-disordered persons. The pun in the title of the review of Surviving an Eating Disorder reflects the endemic boundary confusion within this population. It is not only the identified patient, but those around her, who are challenged and must survive. Therefore, the responses and psychological well-being of survivors are essential to the healing process.

Within these pages, those who care for and about a person with an eating disorder will discover that there is no one-size-fits-all model for the treatment of anorexia, bulimia, and overeating. Readers are cautioned that helping someone with these conditions requires tremendous outside support. Survivors learn that they are both part of a common group experience, but also that individualized plans are useful, drawing from the many treatment options available. In this third edition, the late psychotherapist Michele Siegel continues to be credited for providing the book's initial inspiration. The book has been updated with contributions from co-authors Judith Brisman (psychologist/psychoanalyst) and Margot Weinshel (family therapist). Together they offer a comprehensive integration, advocating for the value of psychological inquiry that may be conducive to a psychoanalytic approach over time.

Brisman has been a pioneer in blending a psychoanalytic perspective with the hands-on interventions needed when patients are stuck in