With the aid of déjà raconté the ego of one patient could allow access to consciousness of material which had previously been overwhelming and therefore repressed. The trick of perceptual distortion aimed at reassuring him that the situation referred to had previously been mastered successfully. It is probable that déjà raconté is only evoked by material which is threatening to the ego. This theory would bring the explanation of déjà raconté into basic accord with Oberndorf's formulation of déjà vu as a reassurance to the subject that he is not entering a new field unconsciously associated with failure.