Déjà vu in a young student is used to illustrate and confirm the hypothesis of J. T. McCurdy which holds that the essential feature of déjà vu is the subject's discontent at the intrusion into consciousness of something he cannot account for, and which is experienced as the recognition of an object rationalized by association with something familiar. The author concludes that, in some cases, the conscious affect may be pleasurable and that the real sources of the 'recognition' may be found in the unconscious. Freud's paper about déjà vu1 is not mentioned.