ition, 1994, pp. 539-550).
Historical Perspective of Eating Disorders
Even though eating disorders have captured the attention of the public during the last decade, they have been cited in previous centuries. As early as 1686, Richard Morton described a 20-year-old girl who suffered from symptoms that resembled those of anorexia nervosa. Apparently, the girl was obsessed with food even though she was "like a Skeleton only clad with Skin" (Morton, in Costin, 1999, p. 4). However, it was only in 1874 when Sir William Gull, a British doctor, used the clinical term, anorexia nervosa, to label the conditions of his patients. The patients displayed the characteristic symptoms of anorexic individuals: a non-desire to eat, severe weight loss, amenorrhea, constipation and hyperactivity. In the early 20th century, Pierre Janet encapsulated the essence of the condition. Janet realized that anorexia nervosa was a "psychological disturbance, of which the refusal of food is but the outer expression" (Costin, 1999, p. 6). Janet also used the term, "bulimia," in 1903 to label the medical condition of Nadia, a woman who hid her frequent and uncontrollable binges (Costin, 1999, p. 9). Therefore, it is evident that doctors and scientists in the past already had a clear sense of the severity of eating disorders.
Studies during the 1950s and 1980s have also uncovered binge eating problems that do not meet the criteria of bulimia nervosa, yet constitute a substantial overeating problem. Therefore, in 1992, binge eating disorders were established as an eating disorder at the International eating Disorders Conference (Costin, 1999, pp. 15-6).
Apart from the medical discovery and labeling of various types of eating disorders, it is important to see the impact of changes in social standards of beauty on women and the concomitant emergence of eating disorders. Apparently, during the first part of the 18th century, even women who were not thin matc...