In dealing with patients who have eating disorders, Bruch stresses that it is important for the therapist to stay with the facts and avoid intellectualized interpretations. The case of an anorexic man is described with many statements which can easily be used as a guide on what to say to the patient and the family. Fat people 'eat' interpretations which do not become their own and thus duplicate what happened with the mother who 'always knew how I felt'. The author then discusses the more controversial subject of schizophrenia, which she defines not by Bleuler's criteria but by its cardinal symptoms of disturbances of body image, passivity, and lack of volition. To support her comparison of obesity with what she calls schizophrenia she cites Piaget, Bateson, and Harlow. She emphasizes evidence from studies which show the severe intrafamilial conflicts in patients who have eating disorders and asserts that this makes them like schizophrenic patients.