Abstract
Enza, a young woman of twenty-one years of age, is receiving psychotherapy from Maria Antonia Ferrante. Enza's ailment is that she fasts for several days, then overeats and vomits, under the ever watchful eye of her grandmother, father and mother. In the three years of her work with this anorexic young woman, Ferrante learns a lot about Enza's family and village. An idea develops in her mind that Enza `s ailment might be connected with ritual adaption or maladaption to social change; she decides to visit her village. Before doing so, she goes to a library in Rome to read up about the socioeconomic situation and the folklore and beliefs of the people in Enza's region. When she arrives at Ispani, she finds other girls and young women with similar ailments, whose cases are similarly enlightening and informative. She also talks to the emaciated ninety-three-year-old priest who hides the beautiful Madonna of the parish church in a cupboard to make room for the statue of the male St Rocco.... Then the puzzle of rural anorexia in Southern Italy is solved.
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