The self-help manual which forms the major part of this book is based on the application of cognitive behavior therapy to bulimia nervosa and binge-eating. This application was first described by Dr Christopher Fairburn of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford in 1981 in an article in the journal Psychological Medicine. Over the course of the subsequent fifteen years, I worked with Dr Fairburn and his colleagues to develop and refine this method of treatment, and I am enormously indebted to Dr Fairburn for his advice and support in modifying the treatment program so that it can be presented in the form of a self-help manual.
The manual as it appears in this book has gone through a great many revisions. These have been motivated largely by the comments and criticisms I have received from people with bulimia nervosa who have been using the manual as a means to recovery. I am very grateful to them for their help in shaping the final version. I am particularly grateful to those people who have agreed to my including in this book direct quotations from their accounts of their problems and of their use of the manual.
A number of my colleagues were kind enough to read the original manuscript of this book and offer advice and criticism. For this service I am especially grateful to Sarah Beglin, Sian Coker, Carmel Fleming, Lynne Murray, Jane Steere and Christina Wood.
PJC