In addition to the well-known forms in which neurotic conflicts tend to be expressed, the psychiatrist of today is increasingly faced with psychopathological pictures in which no inhibitions of instinctual drives and no sense of guilt seem to be present. Apparently other defences are being employed against the tension arising from conflicts between superego, ego-ideal and ego. With the help of some clinical examples it is shown that unconscious guilt, need for punishment, and self-indictment may lead to disturbances of behaviour which above all will destroy the person's object-relations. The psychic mechanisms underlying this kind of pathology are described.