The author presents the following conclusions regarding the psychology of the writer. Clinical material is offered to support these conclusions: (1) The writer does not express his unconscious wishes and phantasies, as had been previously assumed, but rather, under pressure of his unconscious feelings of guilt, gives expression in his writing to his unconscious defence against these wishes and phantasies. (2) It is indisputable that exhibitionism is one of the unconscious motives in artistic creation. However, it is not a primary tendency. The writer is a voyeur who utilizes his exhibitionistic tendencies secondarily as a defence against more deeply repressed scopophilic tendencies. (3) In writers the most decisive rôle is played by their orality. They suffer from an inhibition of oral giving, and from a desire to refuse, out of revenge. (4) The Oedipus complex is used as a defence against more deeply imbedded oral material.