The psychosomatic theory of obesity assumes that binging, eating in response to emotional distress, is characteristic of obese individuals, yet experimental attempts to demonstrate binging have yielded weak support for this assumption. The incidence of binging was investigated by means of structured interviews on food habits with 41 male and 39 female subjects who ranged in weight from thin to obese. Fifty-one percent of the females and 29 percent of the males reported binging at least twice a month. Reasons for binging included anxiety, tiredness, loneliness, long-term dieting, and frustration . No differences in the incidence of binging were found on the basis of body weight. Results suggest that lack of experimental support for the occurrence of binging may be due to the failure to take into account individual differences in the situations under which binging may occur and the assumption that the obese are qualitatively distinct from the non-obese in their reaction to emotional distress. Binging is an important category of eating behavior and should be more fully incorporated into studies of body weight regulation. (Author)