The author surveys her own and other writers' studies of separation anxiety (hospitalization), and makes a number of new contributions on a theme which has so far received less attention in the literature. She selects for consideration the part played in the child's reaction to bodily illness of the various nursing, medical, and surgical procedures which are open to modification and distinguishes them from those elements which are inherent in the process of illness itself, such as the effects of pain and the inevitable changes of libido distribution. Lastly, a comparison is made between the state of deprived children who care for their bodies in identification with their lost mothers and the adult hypochondriac who overcathects his body with libido after it has been withdrawn from the adult world.