A thirty-three-month-old girl developed intestinal obstruction from a large hair ball. She had been swallowing hair obtained from different sources over the previous eighteen months. Following surgery, psychological intervention revealed an underlying network of fantasies, mainly of oral impregnation. Shortterm interpretative therapy helped the child and her parents to understand each other. Six months after surgery no recurrence of the symptoms was noticed, and the patient was doing well emotionally and physically.