The Invisible Man: a Self-Help Guide for Men with Eating Disorders, Compulsive Exercise and Bigorexia - John F. Morgan, Routledge, 2008, US$22.95 pb, 184 pp. ISBN 978-1-58391-150-1

It is now 30 years since the publication of Orbach's Fat is a Feminist Issue (1978). During this time there has been considerable research interest in the biological, social and cultural factors which might account for the asymmetry in incidence of body dissatisfaction and eating disorders between men and women. It is perhaps an inevitable consequence of this that eating disorders have come to be seen, particularly in popular culture, as essentially female disorders, leaving the not insignificant numbers of men who do develop these problems struggling with an additional burden of the stigma of having a ‘girl's disease’.

By coincidence, while preparing this review, several well-known men in the UK have ‘gone public’ about their own eating disorders, perhaps acknowledging a shift in our readiness to look at the particular problems that men who have such disorders might face. The Invisible Man is thus a book which is long overdue, but hopefully one whose time has come. Written as a self-help guide for men with eating disorders, compulsive exercise and bigorexia, this book definitely ‘does what it says on the tin’.

John Morgan provides a wide-ranging, thoughtful and thought-provoking survey of eating disorders, what is currently known about them and how to get help, written firmly and sympathetically from a male perspective. Always mindful of the particular difficulties faced by men, Morgan successfully backs up his argument that fat is more than a feminist issue in an introduction setting out the current social and cultural issues facing men in western society which make it particularly hard for them to seek help. The book then follows up with sections on how to make sure whether you have a body image disorder (including descriptions of the main diagnostic categories), science fiction and science fact, in which current knowledge about these disorders is lucidly set out (with chapters on body image distortion, compulsive exercise, steroid abuse and physical and mental health implications), and finally, a self-help manual in seven parts: ‘Motivation’, ‘Sharing the Secret’, ‘Healthy Habits’, ‘Thinking Straight’, ‘Feeling Good’, ‘Seeking Professional Help’ and ‘Remaining Well’.

Throughout the book, Morgan is straightforward, direct, always optimistic and realistic about what can be achieved. It is difficult to see how any man struggling with facing up to eating disorder would not feel understood, supported and encouraged by reading this book, even if some might need to take their time to act upon it. The book should certainly be recommended to such men by both specialists and general practitioners.

If there are any quibbles, and this does seem like nit picking, there is some use of terminology that could do with more explanation for the general reader: words like ‘hedonism’, ‘schemata’ and even ‘hormones’. And the section on genetic influences rather assumes that the reader has quite a sophisticated understanding of what genes do. But, as everyone who struggles with eating and body dissatisfaction disorders has to learn, no one (and nothing) can be perfect.