ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the developmental issues as they can present in preadolescent girls, their transition through puberty, and on into adolescence. Body image, physiology, and cognitive development addressed with vignettes aimed at highlighting aspects of development. The chapter highlights the potential contribution of interpersonal theory to the development of eating disorders, and focuses on Sullivan's juvenile, preadolescence, and early adolescence epochs. It considers some of the normal processes such as adrenarche, puberty cognitive development and multiplicity of self-states; and their effect on girls' bodies and potential effect on the sense of self. Puberty focuses a girl's attention on her body and her sexual desirability, including her physical attractiveness; it brings sexual competition for the attention of the desired sexual partner to the forefront. The vignette returns to Nicole and highlights Jacqueline Ferraro effort as a psychoanalyst to understand his own bodily changes and perceptions-past and current-illustrating ways they intersect, shape, and inform the treatment.
