Extreme conditions in some young persons' life-experiences might postpone or even hinder the natural process of mourning of lost childhood omnipotence, ambivalent feelings towards and separation from parental figures. The psychic mechanisms behind these youngsters' flight from the loving grip of their parents to the conflicting situations which later traumatise them are described. The traumatic events following their choice of leaving the parental home were later unconsciously experienced as punishment—a direct consequence of the forbidden separation. Guilt problems otherwise within the normal range of development, here get a special colouring which can be recognised among others in the difficulties to establish a working-alliance with the therapist and problems in establishing intimate relationships later in life.