ABSTRACT
As early as 1694 Richard Morton wrote of anorexia nervosa as 'nervous consumption' and regarded the 'immediate cause of this distemper' to be in the 'system of the nerves'. The early papers on anorexia nervosa, notably those by Lasegue and Gull were concerned with establishing the prime importance of emotional factors in its causation. In 1948 Dr Clifford Scott wrote of anorexia nervosa,'as yet little has been done to try to trace specific connections between the symptoms and the instinctive life, the imagination and the interpersonal relations. It is in this phase that it is difficult to make contact with patients suffering from anorexia nervosa due to their extreme reticence and withdrawal. This case demonstrates very well those features of personality, emotional preoccupation and family situation which the earlier writers showed to be so typical for anorexia nervosa.
