The authors present a review of some points regard to anorexia nervosa. Classificatory, historic, clinical and therapeutic aspects are reported. Recognized as the basis for some mystical occurrences at the Middle Ages, it was seen as a hysterical presentation in the seventeenth century, to become object of Freudian questions. It discusses the anorexia as a presentation of the hysterical structure, here boarded from the Freud's concepts on hysteria, Oedipus and femininity, and considering the physical body like a mere support for symbolic articulations. About to Freud, anorexia nervosa is a symptom by which hysterical patient expresses his aversion to sexuality.
anorexia nervosa; hysteria; feminine