The nuclear family and the modern abandonment of responsibility for the older generation have not only made old age a scourge to be feared and avoided, but has left its scars on the very young. The student movement of the sixties and Women's Liberation Movement both may reflect the ravages brought on by the loss of the extended family. The SDS in the former and the radical group in the latter may represent the overt symptoms of the malaise. The radical women in their excesses may be drawing our attention to issues in social psychiatry that cannot be fully grasped as long as we remain slaves to surface manifestations and ignore the unconscious forces that shape human phenomena. We have attempted to examine the radical faction of the Women's Liberation Movement by utilizing the twin sciences of sociology and psychoanalysis. Here perhaps is a unique research opportunity whose implications for mental health and illness far transcend the fashions and passions of the moment.