Eating disorders

Anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are thought of by most people as a disease of modern society, with the death of Karen Carpenter in 1983 bringing the condition into the media spotlight. However, in 1870 Sir William Gull in London and Charles Lasegue, a Parisian neurologist, published papers describing a number of cases exhibiting a pattern of self starvation that is now clearly recognisable as anorexia nervosa. The ideal feminine shape and perception of beauty has changed over the centuries, but during the Victorian era the most desirable female asset was that of a tiny waist. Social pr...