Eating disorders are a multi-aspect issue, affecting ways of acquiring nutrition, its quality and quantity, as well as experiences, emotions and behaviors related to eating. While eating disorders have been discussed for many years, those phenomena continue to pose many questions, referring mostly to difficulties in definition and diagnosis. The historical perspective assumed in this article is meant not only to show the change of attitudes towards eating disorders across the ages, but also the increase in their prevalence in recent history. The article also poses the question if today's psychological anorexia nervosa is a particular continuation of historical anorexia mirabilis, or if it constitutes its own separate category.
