Down the centuries, self-starvation has taken many morbid guises - in the extremes of religious fasting and the abstinence of the saints; in hunger strikes; in the exhibition of iving skeletons and hunger artists; in the fate of melancholica, hystericsm the possessed and bewitched. This strange story culminates in the 19th century labelling of anorexia nervosa, a condition which has since attracted a host of theories and explanations and a vast literature, the course of which a medical curiosityhas been transformed into a modern disease. In the history of psyhiatry this is a remarkable...

This volume is composed of international contributions from specialists covering the major areas of pressure and responsibilty upon practising therapists in the treatment of eating disorders. Topics covered include: dealing with the patient's family; nursing care; issues of gender; compulsory treatment; food refusal and forced feeding; managed care; treatment facilities; and terminal care.