THIS PAPER WILL SUMMARIZE the psychoanalysis of a girl who suffered from bowel-movement retention and will include the details of specific sessions of her analysis, which took place when she was three to four years old. This method of presentation has the advantage of permitting the reader access to the evidence on which psychoanalytic formulations are based, but the disadvantage of being but one case and a relatively brief analysis at that—one year in duration. Another difficulty is in simultaneously evaluating two interrelated sets of data: the complexities of the psychogenesis of the patient's illness and the inferences to be drawn concerning the psychology of girls her age. In studying psychopathology, we may also see normal development in relief. Conflicts, wishes, fantasies, and defenses are communicated to us vividly as only a patient eager for help can communicate them.