The fears of the patient derived their form and ideational content from fairy tales told him by his mother. The fairy tales had helped him, in childhood, to a temporary solution of the conflicts centering around his Oedipus situation. His attempt to make the same material, incorporated in fears and fantasies, serve a like purpose, when forbidden wishes were reactivated by the birth of his own son, failed because the original Oedipus conflict had been only partly solved. The author points out that fairy tales may either help or hinder a child in the solution of his conflicts, depending largely on the circumstances under which they are related. In many cases they increase the child's anxiety by furnishing means of increasing his guilt for stolen pleasure.