The author explores the relationship between adolescent development and anorexia nervosa, and the ways in which asceticism links them. Adaptive adolescent

asceticism is distinguished from pathological asceticsm by the degree to which the asceticism becomes an end in itself. The anorectic's asceticism is considered from three viewpoints: (1) as a defense against drives; (2) as a defense against the sense of powerlessness; and (3) as the expression of a wish for aesthetic and moral transcendence. The advantages of this developmental orientation are demonstrated in the report of the treatment of an anorectic adolescent.