Two analytic cases with at least some degree of vegetarianism were presented and their oral cannibalistic impulses and conflicts were noted. The lack of full understanding of

the ultimate etiology of vegetarianism was discussed, especially because defenses against cannibalism can only be described as a necessary but insufficient precondition for this phenomenon. The prominence of contradictory identifications and concrete and literally understood introjective mechanisms was noted as possibly reinforcing the prohibition against eating meat. Speculations were made relating vegetarianism to vivid oral primal-scene impressions, and to its possible expression within the oral triad.