Father Hunger: Fathers, Daughters, and the Pursuit of Thinness
This book pioneered the term “father hunger” - the emptiness, and resulting food and body image disorders, experienced by women whose fathers were physically or emotionally absent. Based on ten years of further study, this second edition of Father Hunger details the origins of the syndrome and its effect on the family, with new practical solutions to help dads and daughters understand and improve their relationships. An expanded section for educators and therapists offers strategies and techniques for preventing and treating this complex problem.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Now I know why…
The title of the book caught my eye while I was looking through an eating disorders booklet. The author managed to put into words all the confusion and heartache a girl can go through if she does not have a positive relationship with her father. I had no idea how important the father/daughter relationship was or how deep the emotional scars can be by not having a good one. I would highly recommend this to any daughter who has eating issues and a problematic realationship with her father or any parent trying to understand their daughter’s eating disorder. I simply cannot say enough about how this book has positively affected my life.
2 Stars Disappointment to anyone seeking in-depth analysis
I was hoping this book would take a much more academic, intellectual look at psychoanalysis and the study of father-daughter relationships. Instead, the language and tone are simplistic, the anecdotes are quaint and pleasant, and the overall depth of research seems minimal. It may be a fine place to start as an overview on the topic, but this is definitely not the book to buy if you’re searching for anything serious or memorable.
5 Stars Came quickly
Great Low Price for a great book in excellent shape.
Came earlier than expected.
5 Stars Fathers are the Core Behind a Woman’s Self-Empowerment
This is a brilliant book on the connection between a father’s relationship with his daughter and the manifestation of her body image into adulthood. Time and time again it has been proven that the absence of a loving emotionally healthy and nurturing relationship with a father substantially increases a woman’s risk for a variety of self-esteem issues, including weight problems. The father is the template to which a woman relates to men, sees herself in interaction with men, and perceives her values with men, and men often are seen as the world given the patriarchial overtones in society and commerce.
In this book, Dr. Maine concentrates on how the father can be instrumental in protecting his daughter from the onslaught of emotionally-driven complications in body image. Often when a young girl is pursuiing thinness it is out of a need for attention. In adolescence this is acute in its unconscious desire for a man’s attention with the blossoming of hormones and puberty. Mass media tells young girls that love is only possible through physical appearance. If a young girl has no concept of uncondition love from the one and only man who she needs it from - her biological or adoptive father (NOT a stepfather, they are actually dangerous to stepdaughters) … she will be indoctrinated by the belief and it will be her sense of reality that only her body and its state of perfection guarantees performance-based ego-centric love.
Dr. Maine outlines the role of fathers, what they can do, and gives them brilliant advice in this book on how to love their daughters and protect them from the illusions of the world. BRAVO!
Once again … daddy’s girls get all the breaks. It is as if only the father can guarantee immunity from predatory men if he sets a high standard in his daughter’s mind. The predatory nature of a mysoginist culture is often a culprit behind why women are literally dying to be thin just to get bread crumbs of shallow attention for undeserving men. Only women who have their father’s unconditional love stand a chance at being firm and rooted enough in that love to see the myth and lie that being thin is the passage way to being appreciated.
4 Stars This explains a lot
Fathers of daughters with eating disorders need help understanding the disorder and how to overcome their frustration with not being able to “fix” their daughter. This book opens the door to begin the process of restoring a more normal and effective role for the father.
While not the most “user friendly” writing style for the non-professional, it is easily understood and offers much information to help men (and the women they love) deal effectively with everyone impacted by the eating disorder…themselves, their spouse and, most importantly, their child.
Although I am a physician, I am also the father of a daughter with an eating disorder and read this book upon the advice of her therapist. I am very glad to say that it has started my daughter and me on a path to a much richer relationship and that she is on the road to recovery.
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