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Stick Figure
By Lori Gottlieb. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2000, 220 pages, $22.00 (hardback); 240 pages, $10.80 (paperback).
Eating disorders are becoming increasingly more common as girls move from childhood into adolescence. For some girls, it is just a diet; for others, it is a way of life. Lori Gottlieb shares her battle in dealing with anorexia nervosa in the book Stick Figure. She kept a diary throughout her childhood and recorded her inner most thoughts and feelings. Currently, Lori is about thirty years old and looks at her life as an accomplishment because she overcame this devastating disorder. According to Lori, 50% of fourth-grade girls in the United States diet because they think they are too fat. Gottlieb published her diaries in the book Stick Figure to share what goes on inside the head of someone with an eating disorder, to show those currently going through similar situations that they are not alone, and finally to open doors to further research and understanding on this topic.
The book is broken into four sections: the winter of 1978, the spring of 1978, the summer of 1978, and the epilogue. The book begins in the winter of 1978 and describes the everyday lifestyle of an eleven year old girl, Lori Gottlieb. As the book continues through the spring and the summer the reader begins to see her eating disorder slowly progress into something she ca not handle on her own. One cannot truly pinpoint the cause of an eating disorder; however, in Lori’s case many things may have contributed to her problem. Gottlieb recalls learning a lot from magazines, television, peers, her mother and her cousin; all of whom stressed upon her the importance of being thin and beautiful. Lori’s fascination with being thin began when she noticed that her thighs looked fat when she sat with her legs uncrossed. This fascination soon turned into an obsession where she refused to eat. The normal intake of calories for a girl her age should be between 2000 and 2500 per day; however, Lori usually ate that in a week. Lori reached the point where she believed that by just smelling foods or smelling other people’s breath that she would take in calories and gain weight. With her weight falling to the bottom tenth percentile for her age and height, Lori was hospitalized during this time. Her cognitions and her image of herself became more and more distorted until the final few chapters in the book, where Lori comes to the realization that she had become the “stick figure” that she once desired to resemble.
In the Epilogue, Gottlieb shares her thoughts and feelings about publishing her childhood diaries. Here she makes the distinction between anorexia and normalcy. She offers statistics on eating disorders, and she discusses the daily conversations of adolescents today and how their conversations revolve around how “fat” they look and how they need to go on a diet. There is so much pressure to fit in during adolescence that they often forget about what is truly important. This book tells the story of her former self and how she overcame this horrific disorder.
Stick Figure would be an essential bibliotherapy tool to incorporate into psychotherapy for clients who are bothered by their weight and have a minor eating disorder or for clients who are obsessed with their weight and have a fully developed eating disorder. This book would be ideal to use in psychotherapy where the client is about the same age as Lori and has anorexia nervosa. Although, this book can also be used for any age, any eating disorder, no matter the severity, and possibly even for males with eating disorders. The book could be broken into sections and used as homework during different periods of psychotherapy so that the client can actually see how the mind of a person with an eating disorder changes from being concerned with her weight to being obsessed with her weight. The entire book could also be read between sessions because it is a quick and interesting read. After the book is read by the client, the psychotherapist should discuss the book or the parts of the book so that the client has a full understanding of anorexia nervosa and can relate to the disorder from her or his own perspective. As the psychotherapy continues, the clinician should refer back to the book if the client is engaging in a behavior that is similar to Lori’s. It depends on how severe the disorder is when the client comes into psychotherapy, as to when the clinician should use the book. If the client is coming to treatment in the beginning stages of the disorder, the book can be used as a look into the future, so that the client may see how badly things could turn out. On the other hand if the client is coming to therapy in the most severe stages of the disorder, then the book should be used to show them that they are not alone and that someone has overcome this disorder.
The biggest strength of this book is that this is a true account of someone’s former self; it is not a self-help book on eating disorders. It may be difficult for a client to listen to doctors, family members, and friends preach about this disorder because they may not know what she or he is going through unless they have had a similar disorder. This book offers readers someone with whom they may relate and also shows them that the disorder may be overcome. Stick Figure is an inspiring story that unfolds in order to provide motivation and insight into the client’s presenting problems. This book is compassionate, but at times upsetting; however, there is also a comic twist to the book that offers a sense of relief to the reader. Hopefully after reading this book, the reader will be able to apply this book to his or her life. Furthermore, the author really captures the reader’s attention, by allowing the reader to step into Lori’s shoes and understand what it is really like to suffer from an eating disorder by experiencing this explicit account lived by Lori Gottlieb.
There are a couple of limitations of this book that may only apply to a handful of readers. This book may not be meant for extreme cases where the client lacks the motivation to change or where the client may look at himself/herself as a failure because he/she has not accomplished what Lori has. It is the psychotherapist’s job to assess if clients are ready for a book such as this because if they are not, they may feel that they are expected to take on the same thinking patterns as Lori Gottlieb. This may be extremely difficult for clients because they may not have the mindset as Lori had to overcome this obsession.
There are extreme cases where the book should not be used in psychotherapy. But, for the most part it would be a good tool in instilling hope in clients, helping them to develop insight into their own problems, and aiding them to have a more positive outlook on their problems and life. The book does focus on one disorder, anorexia nervosa; however, it encompasses what it’s like to be caught in a family and a society where one can see the impact of the mixed messages that are sent to young American girls. Lori conveys to the reader what it’s like to be alone in conquering a disorder that is overcoming both her mind and body. However, by writing this book, it may offer readers a sense that they are not alone and that others have gone through what they are going through and have survived.