This work offers a comprehensive, theoretically integrated model for understanding the aetiology of bulimia and for implementing treatment stategies. Drawing on an exhaustive analysis of the research, it describes the ways in which, for example, a family history of affective disorders, disturbances in the mother-child relationship, and a cultural preoccupation with thinness may interact to predispose a young woman to bulimia. In keeping with the aetiological view, this volume presents a multidimensional treatment approach, based on a unusual blend of psychodynamic and cognitive-behavioural principles.