Some five million American women suffer from eating disorders ranging from compulsive dieting to compulsive eating, anorexia to bulimia. The Hungry Self explores the often troubled relationship between mothers and daughters, and the latter’s reluctance to grow away from and perhaps beyond the former to achieve the independence and autonomy expected of them in today’s world. Instead, daughters of all ages and backgrounds flee the struggle for identity and self-development into an obsession with food.