John was a highly intelligent, unhappy boy who was failing to function academically and socially. This paper attempts to show how the cumulative stress between the parents resulting in divorce and remarriage affected a child with a predisposition to anxiety. The internal and external chaos wrought by disturbed and unpredictable parents distorted his development. His feelings of abandonment and bewilderment led to low self-esteem. The paper will illustrate how this influenced the analytic process and the areas in which treatment helped to restore him to the path of normal development.