| Description |
296 pages |
| Contents |
1. A Mirror of Time and Culture. A current view of anorexia nervosa. Anorexia nervosa as a culture-bound syndrome. Psychological history and historical psychology. The invention of syndromes -- 2. Holy Fasts. Supernatural power. Penance and asceticism. Church's rules on fasting. The asceticism of the desert fathers. Late medieval ascetics and mystics. Modern fasting saints -- 3. Possession and Witchcraft. Fasting and temptation by the devil. Worn out and bewitched. Exorcism as treatment. From possession to patienthood. Anorexia nervosa and exorcism -- 4. Miraculous Maidens. Self-starvation as a spectacle. The miracle put to the test. Margaretha Weiss, the miraculous maiden from Roed. The alleged fasting of Barbara Kremers from Unna. Eva Vliegen, the mendacious maiden from Meurs. From miraculous maiden to hysterical patient -- 5. Hunger Artists and Living Skeletons. Thinness as entertainment. Fasting for a living. Heyday and decline of the art of fasting |
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The art of fasting in literature -- 6. Food Abstinence: Medical Mystery and Therapy. A miracle of God. Miracle or natural phenomenon? Living on air. The beneficial effect of food abstinence -- 7. Food Abstinence and Emaciation as Signs of Illness. Anorexia. Atrophia nervosa or nervous consumption. Hysteria. Melancholia. Love-sickness and chlorosis -- 8. Who Was the First to Describe Anorexia Nervosa? Precursors of a 'new' illness. Gull and Lasegue -- 9. Self-starvation in the Hands of Physicians. Characteristics of the 'new' illness. Nervosa or hysterica? Psychasthenia and neurasthenia. Ebb and flood of theories -- 10. The Victorian Roots of Anorexia Nervosa. The powerlessness of the 'ideal' family. The growing-pains of puberty and adolescence. The affliction of the 'new woman'. Discovery of the forbidden sexuality. Beauty as a 'weighty' task -- 11. Morbid Miracle or Miraculous Morbidity? Saints or patients? Anorexic artists. The mysterious epidemic |
| Analysis |
Anorexia nervosa - History |
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Fasting - History |
| Notes |
Published in German as, Hungerkunstler, fastenwunder, magersucht: eine kulturgeschichte der ess-storungen. This translation is based on the German edition which was an adapted and shortened version of the original Dutch |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages [250]-287) and index |
| Subject |
Anorexia nervosa -- History.
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Anorexia Nervosa.
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History.
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History of Medicine.
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| Author |
Deth, Ron van, 1955-
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| LC no. |
94002859 |
| ISBN |
0485240106 |
|
0814787835 |
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0814787843 paperback |
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