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Through experimental feedback, this article aims to clarify the essential therapeutic role of the capacity for (both intra- and inter-institutional) containment in the treatment of anorexic teenagers. Throughout Gabrielle’s period of care, the provision for care we devised evolved to afford a true containing shell. Such an institutional capacity for containment consists of an overlapping web of support features that address the situation in its entirety. The strength and continuity of the relationships thus created with the professionals, together with the differentiation between the therapeutic spaces available also their complementary nature, provide real therapeutic tools that help organise and structure, where the system of family relations has failed to do so. The anorexic teenager can try out new forms of relationships within a space that provides security and individuation, allowing her to test out alternatives to perverted forms of loyalty.