ABSTRACT
A patient with restrictive type anorexia nervosa (AN) showed an extreme manifestation of the belief that "life was not meant to be enjoyed, but to fulfill others' expectations". Her difficulties to fully live her life and to assert her presence were expressed in her feeling that if she eats it would be at the expense of somebody else. She therefore could not eat for herself and felt the urge to reject whatever nourishment her body absorbed. In therapy, mirroring the sense of prohibition to live for her own right, and the empathic validation and acknowledgement of such right to live for her self, led to remission of the anorexic symptoms.
