Eating disorders in Italy: A historical review

This paper reviews the history of medical knowledge of eating disorders in Italy. It starts with the first examples of the medical interpretation of s tarvation during the Middle and Renaissance Ages, continues with the semina l figure of Brugnoli in the late XIX century, describes the neurological in terpretations of the 1930s, the return to psychiatry in the 1940s and 1950s , the rise to international prominence of Mara Selvini Palazzoli in the 196 0s and 1970s and ends with a description of the present state of the art. C opyright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association.