y image becomes crucial in this development, as does the social and familial setting. We have learned this from the "developmental" perspective, which crystallizes the significance of changes in girls during their adolescent years. The potential remedy, therefore, exists in the understanding of these changes and how they affect self-image. Women with eating disorders are often in severe denial. The control of their body weight serves an important purpose in their lives, for one dysfunctional reason or another. It is a way they can cope with their problems. Many women, as we have learned, use food to repress their emotions. They are out of touch with their feelings and use food as a form of escapism. They need psychotherapy. In order to help women suffering from eating disorders, it would first be important to follow the advice given by David Burns in Feeling Good. The New Mood Therapy. (Burns) Burns teaches certain steps in psychotherapy practise that teach people to make charts of tables charted "cognitive distortion" and "rational response". This entails a person writing down what is bothering them and then honestly answering the questions. (Burns, pp.62-69) This might seem too simple, but it is incredible what healing can reside in a person honestly facing their personal secret pain and working through it. The key here, of course, is that many young women who having eating disorders would simply not do this because of their denial. The crucial aspect, therefore, is to make them reconcile themselves with their pain. Though this is the most difficult process, it simply has to be done. Burns shows throughout the book that the only way out of the pain i...
