Quantum Averaging I: Poincaré--von Zeipel is Rayleigh--Schr？dinger

An exact analogue of the method of averaging in classical mechanics is constructed for self--adjoint operators. It is shown to be completely equivalent to the usual Rayleigh--Schr\"odinger perturbation theory but gives the sums over intermediate states in closed form expressions. The anharmonic oscillator and the Henon--Heiles system are treated as examples to illustrate the quantum averaging method.