Inner Selves: The Feminine Path to Weight Loss

Cynthia Whissell is a psychology professor at Laurentian University.

This weight-loss book contains not a single recipe, nor does it provide
readers with any nutritional or caloric information. Nutrition and
exercise are mentioned throughout in positive terms, but emphasis is on
what the author considers to be the real underlying cause of weight
gain: “an imbalance in our mental, physical, and spiritual selves.”
The feminine or yin side of the self (in both men and women) is
emotional and sensitive. Cunningham’s premise is that if this side of
the self is blocked from free expression, the self will respond
protectively by (among other reactions) storing fat. Obesity, in other
words, is a response to unhappiness, and the feminine path to weight
loss involves an understanding of the root problem and, ideally, its
resolution as well. Excess poundage will never disappear permanently so
long as the cause of unhappiness remains active, and it will no longer
be a problem (nor will dieting be necessary) when the unhappiness has
been resolved. Dieting, a militaristic, masculine, yang-based activity,
may be imposed on the yin, but not with any lasting success.

Cunningham, who deserves credit for her realization that emotions play
an important role in both weight gain and weight loss, is a practitioner
of hypnotherapy. She believes that hypnotic regression could be used to
unblock the feminine side of those who are overweight, and she gives
examples of several case studies where her techniques have succeeded in
both identifying and resolving the blockage. She also provides readers
with “breakthrough exercises” to help them get in touch with their
various selves. This is more of a self-help book than a scientific
discourse on weight loss, and its main problem is its single-mindedness;
the author neglects to mention any reasons for weight loss (or gain)
that do not fit her model.