Anorexia's Fallen Angel: The Untold Story of Peggy Claude-Pierre and the Controversial Montreux Clinic

by Barbara McLintock

Anorexia's Fallen Angel contains all the ingredients of an irresistible read: a baffling disease that overwhelmingly afflicts the young and gifted, promises of a miracle cure, whistle-blowing insiders, and the personality cult surrounding a charismatic leader. Journalist Barbara McLintock tells the tale of Peggy Claude-Pierre, a mother with no professional training who claimed to cure eating disorders with unconditional love at the Montreux Clinic in Victoria, B.C. Breathless media coverage earned Claude-Pierre's clinic a worldwide reputation before allegations of force-feeding and patients being held against their will ultimately led to the clinic losing its license.

Genres: Nonfiction, Mental Health, Psychology

352 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[l · Rating 4 out of 5]

Horrifying.

The idea that McLintock is vilifying anyone is absurd (Claude-Pierre's actions speak for themselves) though McLintock's language re: patients suffering from anorexia is inappropriate and unhelpful at times.

Approaching criticism of the Montreux Clinic as an issue of alternative medicine vs the biomedical model is unhelpful. This is about patient rights and the denial of those rights (nb BC has very weak patient rights compared to many other Canadian provinces so that the Montreux Clinic failed to meet those standards is pretty damning).

That Claude-Pierre is now operating another clinic in Portugal is again, horrifying.

[Linda · Rating 1 out of 5]

McLintock seems out to vilify Claude-Pierre. She doesn't seem to completely understand eating disorders, either, making callous comments like "so-and-so didn't look like somebody in the throes of anorexia" While I'm not suggesting Montreux was perfect, she seems to worship the medical establishment too much, which itself has been largely ineffective in treating eating disorders. Much is made that (gasp) Claude-Pierre doesn't have a bachelor's degree. I was happy when this book was over.