The Psychology of Overeating
Food and the Culture of Consumerism
by Kima Cargill
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Pub Date Oct 22 2015 | Archive Date Jan 04 2016
Description
Drawing on empirical research, clinical case material and vivid examples from modern culture, The Psychology of Overeating demonstrates that overeating must be understood as part of the wider cultural problem of consumption and materialism. Highlighting modern society's pathological need to consume, Kima Cargill explores how our limitless consumer culture offers an endless array of delicious food as well as easy money whilst obscuring the long-term effects of overconsumption.
The book investigates how developments in food science, branding and marketing have transformed Western diets and how the food industry employs psychology to trick us into eating more and more – and why we let them. Drawing striking parallels between 'Big Food' and 'Big Pharma', Cargill shows how both industries use similar tactics to manufacture desire, resist regulation and convince us that the solution to overconsumption is further consumption. Real-life examples illustrate how loneliness, depression and lack of purpose help to drive consumption, and how this is attributed to individual failure rather than wider culture.
The first book to introduce a clinical and existential psychology perspective into the field of food studies, Cargill's interdisciplinary approach bridges the gulf between theory and practice. Key reading for students and researchers in food studies, psychology, health and nutrition and anyone wishing to learn more about the relationship between food and consumption.
The book investigates how developments in food science, branding and marketing have transformed Western diets and how the food industry employs psychology to trick us into eating more and more – and why we let them. Drawing striking parallels between 'Big Food' and 'Big Pharma', Cargill shows how both industries use similar tactics to manufacture desire, resist regulation and convince us that the solution to overconsumption is further consumption. Real-life examples illustrate how loneliness, depression and lack of purpose help to drive consumption, and how this is attributed to individual failure rather than wider culture.
The first book to introduce a clinical and existential psychology perspective into the field of food studies, Cargill's interdisciplinary approach bridges the gulf between theory and practice. Key reading for students and researchers in food studies, psychology, health and nutrition and anyone wishing to learn more about the relationship between food and consumption.
Advance Praise
“Psychologist Kima Cargill takes a tough, critical look at today's consumerist culture from the perspective of research as well as of observations drawn from her clinical experience with patients struggling with weight issues. To stop overeating in today's food environment means finding effective ways to counter the many moral, political, economic, and social imperatives to consume. The ideas in this book should inspire readers to think of obesity in an entirely different way-more as the result of a consumerist society than of individual weakness.” – Marion Nestle, New York University, USA
“Kima Cargill's work is at the forefront of the intersection of clinical psychology and food studies. She is among the very few academics who understands modern eating disorders within the broader perspective of food culture. This book promises to bridge the enormous gulf between theory and practice and will be essential reading for working psychologists and students of food in America.” – Ken Albala, University of the Pacific, USA
“An important contribution to food studies scholarship, as no other work covers quite the same territory. Cargill's discussion connecting consumerism in its broadest sense to food consumption is a unique, impressive contribution to contemporary discussions of food and health in the United States.” – Amy Bentley, New York University, USA
“Kima Cargill's work is at the forefront of the intersection of clinical psychology and food studies. She is among the very few academics who understands modern eating disorders within the broader perspective of food culture. This book promises to bridge the enormous gulf between theory and practice and will be essential reading for working psychologists and students of food in America.” – Ken Albala, University of the Pacific, USA
“An important contribution to food studies scholarship, as no other work covers quite the same territory. Cargill's discussion connecting consumerism in its broadest sense to food consumption is a unique, impressive contribution to contemporary discussions of food and health in the United States.” – Amy Bentley, New York University, USA
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781472581075 |
| PRICE | $29.95 (USD) |
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Featured Reviews
Gonza B, Reviewer
Very interesting book that links the overeating to a more general theory of consumption where we are encouraged (in a way) to over do everything: shopping, eating, exercising, working, etc. What the author does is setting the base of our over whatever in the feeling that we are not enough, that we failed and so now we have to overcompensate. Brilliant.
Libro molto interessante che collega il mangiare troppo con una piú generale teoria del sovraconsumo, secondo la quale siamo in qualche modo spinti ad eccedere in tutto: nello shopping, nel mangiare, nel fare esercizio fisico, nel lavorare, etc. Quello che fa l'autrice é mettere alla base del nostro bisogno di esagerare nel consumo, la sensazione che in qualche modo non andiamo bene, abbiamo fallito e quindi ora dobbiamo compensare. Geniale a suo modo.
THANKS TO NETGALLEY AND BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC FOR THE PREIVEW!
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