Eating Disorders Facts
Hysteria, from the Greek hysterikos (“of
the womb”) was mainly associated with women and was indeed thought
to be caused by a dysfunction of the uterus (Stacey 2002). The symptoms,
mostly exhibited by women, were physical, but they also seemed to be linked
to psychological factors and emotional distress. Increasingly, hysteria was
seen as a type of social illness that was directly related to the needs and
style of the era. In fact, soon after the turn of the century, cases of hysteria
declined as social transformations were established, including significant
changes in the status of women (Gordon 2000). Yet, in the second half of
the twentieth century, a different and more serious type of “anxiety” burst
into public view: eating disorders. Though several ancient texts seem to
describe many modern eating disorders, these disorders began to occur with
alarming frequency in the late 1960s
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