Recrudescence

In his 50th anniversary appreciation of Anthony Burgess's Clockwork Orange in the New York Times Book Review (9/1/2012), Martin Amis used the word, recrudescence, an unfamiliar term.  I doubt that I'd ever seen it before.  the definition is simple enough:

breaking out afresh or into renewed activity; revival or reappearance in active existence.

 Sounds like a term which could be trundled out to describe the dieting habits of the American public, but Amis used the term in reference to self-punitive guilt.