The presence of anxiety preparedness in the newborn is ascribed to his inherited fear of annihilation. Phylogenetic and human ancestral reflections in conjunction with psychoanalytic data point to the ever-existing threat of passive cannibalistic incorporation as the basic danger. In defensive need its cathexis is shifted to the castration complex, which assumes the character of exuvial sacrifice. Its significance is treated in the light of Freud's theory of anxiety and the emphasis which the British School places on the child's cannibalistic projections.