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A review of A Dangerous Daughter
According to a recent Deloitte study, over 70 million people today have an eating disorder. There are almost certainly millions more who are restricting their food intake in some way. So embedded is the idea of ‘thinness’ as beauty in our culture that from early childhood women are conditioned to think of the human body’s natural appetite—not just for food but for space, power, and desire in general—as gross and inappropriate. Jewish traditions are often built around meals that reference persecution – such as the seder where foods are eaten to call to mind hardships. A Dangerous Daughter is fiction but it’s based on Dina Davis’ own experiences with anorexia that include many of the damaging mis-treatments that the protagonist of the book, Ivy, experiences. Like many people, Ivy is encouraged to think of the abundance of food in her life as a privilege against the starvation that others continue […] View more on Dina Davis’s website »
A New Review
This latest review is a wonderful tribute to the book, A Dangerous Daughter. It is written by poet and reviewer Magdalena Ball, whose latest publication, “Bobish”, a verse novel about her great-grandmother’s struggles as an immigrant, is a brilliant work of narration through poetry. Her online Journal Compulsive Reader reviews books by some of the hottest writers working today, exclusive author interviews, literary news and criticism. Compulsive Reader A Review of A Dangerous Daughter June 1, 2023 Reviewed by Magdalena Ball A Dangerous DaughterBy Dina DavisCilento PublishingMay 2021, Paperback, 274 pages, ISBN-13: 978-0645175813 According to a recent Deloitte study, over 70 million people today have an eating disorder. There are almost certainly millions more who are restricting their food intake in some way. So embedded is the idea of ‘thinness’ as beauty in our culture that from early childhood women are conditioned to think of the human body’s natural appetite—not just for food but for space, power, and desire in general—as gross and inappropriate. Jewish traditions are often built around meals that reference persecution – such as the seder where foods are eaten to call to mind hardships. A Dangerous Daughter is fiction but it’s based on Dina Davis’ own experiences with anorexia that include many of the damaging mis-treatments that the protagonist of the book, Ivy, experiences. Like many people, Ivy is encouraged to think of the abundance of food in her life as a privilege against the starvation that others continue […]
Why did 15-yr old Liv have to die?
In the dark ages of the 1950s, I narrowly escaped death from an undiagnosed disease now known as the most lethal of all mental illnesses, anorexia nervosa. I was fifteen, exiled from my family, and blamed for my illness. It is tragic that in the so-called enlightened 21st century, a young Australian girl recently lost her life to this still […]
Hungry for Love and Understanding
The following is a shortened version of a review in the Australasian Journal of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Volume 39 issues 1&2. Review of A Dangerous Daughter by Bernadette Rosbrook (Dina Davis, Cilento, 2021) Hungry for Love and Understanding A Dangerous Daughter (2021) is Dina Davis’ semi-autobiographical account of a young teenager’s struggle with anorexia nervosa in suburban middle-class Australia in the 1950s, and of the psychoanalytic treatment […]
The Dangerous Influence of media messages
These ads are grossly irresponsible and should be called out every time such images are published, telling readers and viewers that happiness lies in losing weight.
The Launch of A Dangerous Daughter
From a time before Covid, when authors could hold live book launches, comes this video of the event on Darwin, filmed by my grandson Arlo Steinberg. Enjoy the nostalgia! For more videos go to Dina Davis Author on U tube at youtube.com/@DinaDavisAuthor. Since then the book has sold hundreds of copies in Australia and overseas. My greatest reward has been […]
Can genetic research help us improve treatment outcome for eating disorders?
Like many other survivors who still bear the scars of Anorexia Nervosa, I am incredibly grateful for the research into this disease showing that it has a strong genetic component. This study was the first of its kind to show that an individual’s DNA may be useful as an adjunct tool in clinical care. More specifically, if findings from genetic studies become more robust through larger sample sizes, genetic information may help us identify individuals who are at greatest risk for developing a severe or enduring illness. HERE IS THE ARTICLE FROM “EXCHANGES” SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL, JUY 2022: by Therese Johansson, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden Eating disorders arise from a combination of genetic and environmental factors. Eating disorders affect millions of people around the world, are life-disrupting, and in some cases can be life-threatening. Unfortunately, no easy test exists, like a blood test, that can tell us if someone has an eating disorder. Recent studies led by Karolinska Institutet, UNC CEED, and King’s College London compared the DNA of people with and without (typical) anorexia nervosa and identified regions in the human DNA that differ between individuals with anorexia nervosa and those without [1]. This has helped us understand the underlying biology of the disorder and has the potential to further help us identify people at risk for poor outcome. Another somewhat surprising result of these studies was that low body mass index (BMI) and anorexia nervosa share genetics, indicating that people […]
Waist not/waste not
Reproduced with permission of the artist, Liz Grylls. In the current epidemic of eating disorders during Covid, popular women’s magazines have a lot to answer for. Margaret Atwood thought so too.
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