This article describes brief therapy using a structural approach. During the course of therapy the encopretic behavior of a pre‐adolescent boy was observed in relation to the interactionand structure of the family system. The presenting problem was analyzed as a sign of family dysfunction and of the stress consequent to the parents separation. The success of the therapy didnot consist only of the disappearance of the encopretic behavior, but also in the discovery of different modalities of relating which produced a liberating effect on the identified patient and on other members of the famil