Tantalus, Restraint Theory, and the Low-Sacrifice Diet: The Art of Reverse Abstraction

This paper argues that clinicians face the unique artistic challenge of taking concrete pieces of data -scientific findings -and abstracting them into effective therapeutic interventions. Moreover, this abstraction has to be modified for different personality types. The process of therapeutic change and how it can be impeded by the traditional medical model are briefly explored. The doctor-patient dyadic treatment relationship, while appropriate and necessary for many medical interventions, can disavow the source of change when it comes to lifestyle conditions such as obesity. Restraint theory and its origins in Greek mythology are briefly reviewed and integrated with Bowlby's attachment theory as precepts in developing a psychologically based dietary approach. By retaining in people's diets foods they have a deep emotional attachment to, the low-sacrifice diet attempts to encourage caloric restriction in a way that does not trigger rebound overeating.