This is a report on a case of psychogenic obesity in a psychosexually immature girl. Depression and abnormal impulses to eat occurred at the age of seventeen following a sexual challenge. Obesity, hypometabolism and amenorrhoea subsequently developed. Analytic therapy (of which no details are presented) was successful in so far as eating spells became less frequent and a considerable reduction of weight and reappearance of the menses was achieved.

The well-known literature on psychogenic obesity is reviewed and the family constellation, the hereditary factors and the environmental influences in this particular case are discussed. Attention is called to the physiological nature of hunger in the obese who, because of a disturbed metabolism, are unable to use much of the ingested food for the fulfilment of their energy requirements.