In a study of five adolescent amphetamine abusers, we have focused attention on the anaclitic syndrome which seems to underlie the multiform symptomatology that was present in each case. Deficiencies in nurturant care during the symbiotic or the need-satisfying phase of development may account for the continuing neediness and deficiencies in achieving stable object relations that left them prone to anaclitic depressive states, particularly in mid-adolescence, but we find ample reasons in both case material and theory to believe that actual object losses and failures to internalize consistent and secure parental objects during a rather catastrophic latency period and early adolescence, and the hostilities against parental objects engendered by parental behavior contributed significantly to their need for the presence of tangible objects upon whom they could depend, and to subsequent regressions to the early "oral" or need-satisfying phase of development.