Oskis, Andrea: The Kitchen Shrink

There is no better way to understand ourselves and our relationships with others than through what we eat. What does food tell us about love? For psychoanalytic therapist Andrea Oskis, the deeply personal stories her patients share with her and that tell her the most about them are not those about narcissist mothers, neglectful fathers or rivaling siblings. The stories that are the most revealing are their food stories. Because food really is the food of love. Food and attachment are entwined from day one; the first bond we make as a tiny human being is to the person who feeds us. And as Oskis demonstrates, if we cannot find feelings of comfort or security in food, we tend not to find them in relationships either. In The Kitchen Shrink, Oskis uncovers what has caused Christy to eat the same lunch for 30 years; how Rachele used hot sauce as a weapon when she found out her husband had cheated on her; why Andrea herself changed the way she cooked after she lost her baby, her food of love reduced to her food of loss. The Kitchen Shrink is about the two things we can‘t live without: food and each other. It shows how our understanding of our personal relationship with food can guide us towards having stronger connections, and help us love and be loved better, forever.