This work marks the retirement of Professor G.F.M. Russell and serves as a tributary volume acknowledging his influence in the field of eating disorders. All contributors have worked in the Eating Disorder Units established by Professor Russell, or have been closely associated with him. This handbook provides an up-to-date review of the eating disorders anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Emphasis is placed on the ideas, hypotheses or models which have dominated research in the field. The extent to which these ideas have been supported by the evidence to date, what they do and do not explain, and how they might be developed further, is highlighted.