ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author proposes to describe a case. One case proves nothing, but it may illustrate much, and may illustrate phenomena that, though significant, do not show up in conventional scientific investigations. The author was consulted by the parents of a girl who was 14 years old. A competent physician was consulted, and after physical examination the doctor told the parents that the girl was physically ill and recommended tonsillectomy with appendicectomy later. The author had an interview with G. herself, and as a result of this and a general survey of the whole problem he decided to come down heavily on the side of a diagnosis of health complicated by emotional and physical disturbances that belong to a certain kind of development. The conflict about identification with boys or with girls continued and gradually worked itself into a solution as G. grew on into puberty.
