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An experimental technique has been described for systematically studying the effects of drives on ego functioning. In the current paper, the focus has been on a hypothesis developed in part from the writings of Hartmann and Bak. It stated that when aggressive drive derivatives are triggered without the individual's being able to ascribe the triggering to something external, regressive thinking can result. Using a subliminal aggressive stimulus as the "trigger," a number of experiments have been described which have yielded strong support for this proposition as far as particular types of regressive thinking are concerned. These have consisted of image fusions and various kinds of loss of control over the thought processes. These reactions were found for both schizophrenics and nonschizophrenics, and among the latter they were often accompanied by defensively motivated libidinal reactions. With regard to the necessary and sufficient conditions for their appearance, while a complete and more definitive formulation must await the accumulation of many additional data, the following findings have relevance. Among
the schizophrenics aggressive triggering produced these regressive manifestations with some consistency only in those who did not have paranoid response modes available to them. Among the nonschizophrenics these reactions were most apt to occur when two prior conditions were fulfilled: (a) some degree of relatively unneutralized aggression was present; (b) aggressive drive derivatives had attained preconscious status. Finally, while other kinds of ego pathology became exacerbated when libidinal derivatives were triggered, the types of regressive thinking referred to above gave evidence of being highly specific reactions to aggression.