Family therapy is generally the preferred approach in the treatment of adolescents. The assessment of certain key variables provided the authors with insight into the typical constellation of anorexia families. These families are usually under the spell of an ascetic achievement ideology—anxiety about sensuality—frequently modelled on a dominating mother or grandmother. The drive increment at the start of puberty or the necessity, at the end of puberty, of becoming sexually and occupationally independent of the family pushes the daughter into anorexia mentalis. Possibilities of therapeutic technique are discussed in detail.