ABSTRACT
Who is most vulnerable to developing anorexia nervosa? As can be surmised from the title of my first book (Levenkron, 1978), it would be “the best little girl” in the family. She was the girl who, from outward appearances, seemed to be working very hard to please everyone, to achieve success, to be a positive influence, and, in fact, to assist her family so that they might be proud of her. She has been characterized as perfectionistic and mistrustful, while alternately compliant and rebellious. Superficially adult, she has never been especially relaxed about receiving support. She inferred from her parents that she was not supposed to need comforting or hugging. She rarely took advice, was often a tyrant at home, yet compliantly acquiescent away from home. The community viewed her as the best dressed and behaved little girl imaginable, and then she would return home only to assume a pleasant but unyielding dictatorial role.
