The paper considers the psychological significance of the religious conversion of T. S. Eliot, several years after the completion of The Waste Land as response to the deterioration of his marriage and the increasing psychosis of his wife. The psychoanalytic literature on conversion is reviewed and its applicability to Eliot's situation considered in terms of needs to master internal aggressive impulses through submission to divine authority. In addition, the poet's conversion provided narcissistic stabilization and reintegrative merger with an idealized self-object. Hypochondriacal fragmentation and fears of psychotic identification were averted through fusion with the unity of monarchy, nation and Church. The new narcissistic balance, experienced as a rebirth, preserved the self and enabled Eliot to give up the attachment to his wife and derive fulfilment through his acceptance of God.