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There is no neurosis specific to anorexia nervosa and no specific anorexia nervosa. Rather it represents a late phase in the clinical course of a large body of emotional disorders, all in some way connected with orality, and including bulimia and obesity. All cases show severe disturbance in the early relation of mother to child. The mother appears to identify the child with a dead sibling or parent toward whom death wishes were entertained. During latency these children tend to be obese. In all cases, the self-starvation begins in the prepubescent period with the initiation of voluntary dieting for reducing, encouraged at first by the mother. This encouragement precipitates panic and regression. The starvation seems to be an attempt to kill the incorporated mother as well as to kill and remove the fat, which is associated with the female form. The mothers respond to the threat of fulfilment of their own unconscious hostile wishes by regression and attempts by any means to force the patient to eat. These patients cannot be treated in their homes. Treatment must be intensive and prolonged long beyond the stage of symptomatic improvement.