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This pamphlet summarizes the views of its authors on anorexia nervosa and allied conditions. While differing on some points, all lay stress on the
ætiological importance of adverse external environment and agree that the symptoms concerned have the character of protest against authority. Thus Dr. Langdon Brown finds such disorder to be a pathological manifestation of the detachment of the individual from the parental authority, related to the general question of infantilism and having affinity with dementia præcox. Dr. Crookshank regards the symptoms as invariably a protest against parental authority. He considers they may be adequately treated by engaging in the family struggle on the patient's side and helping to secure the measure of independence desired. The patient is the central figure in a family pattern of the Abraham-Isaac type, and the first essential is to break up this pattern. It is doubtful how far sexual difficulties are involved, but 'analysis by the Freudian technique is neither advisable nor required'. Dr. Young agrees that anorexia is always a reaction to some obstructing authority, while Dr. Gordon is of opinion that 'if there is any single and simple mechanism involved in this condition—probably an unwise assumption—then the mechanism is one of protest against authority', parental or otherwise. On the other hand, Dr. Bevan Brown thinks the reaction against authority, while of the greatest importance in sustaining the symptoms, is really secondary to disappointment in the craving for love. He cites in support of this view the case of an unwanted child who fell ill after the failure of a love affair, a case which presented many psychotic features. Dr. Crookshank's historical survey and the illustrative case material will probably be of most interest to analysts.