Thomä's Anorexia Nervosa in 342 pages, including extensive bibliographical references of the European and American literature but without an index and with sixteen pages blank, devotes one half of the content to the presentation of clinical material, some of it rather detailed and very informative. Of the seven chapters, the first one, an historical survey, and the second one, on the definition, incidence, physical symptoms, and therapy are especially useful. The last chapter on psychogenesis and psychosomatics of anorexia nervosa will be discussed later.

The book is an important addition to the already extensive bibliography on this puzzling syndrome. On the whole Thomä has been successful in what he set out to demonstrate, namely,