The term "brain-fag" syndrome describes a condition found among African students related to their inability to continue their studies. Previous work has explained this as due to cultural changes stemming from Europeanization. Western psychiatry has described this syndrome in terms of hysteria, depression, borderline syndrome, or identity conflict. Parin carefully describes a case of a young Anyi man from the Ivory Coast whom he effectively treated in eighteen sessions of psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy. The author uses this case not only to point up the inadequacy of previous attempts to explain this syndrome but also to demonstrate the effectiveness of the psychoanalytic model in understanding and treating this man. In particular, the author contends that a "negative" outcome to the oedipus complex made this young man vulnerable to neurosis when his encounter with a European-style education led to conflicts.