ABSTRACT

Over the past thirty years there has been a steady increase in eating disorders. Anorexia nervosa, the slimmers’ disease, was rare in the 1940s, obesity little commented upon, and bulimia unknown. In the past twenty years, anorexia has occurred in epidemic proportions. As many as 50 per cent of women in the United States are thought to be overweight, and women with bulimia, who binge-eat then purge themselves by vomiting or by using laxatives, have been presenting themselves in large numbers over the past ten years. There are many more secret anorexic and bulimic patients who pass unnoticed. This means that a large number of girls and women in our society are constantly preoccupied with food, in one way or another.