Psychiatric examination was made of sixteen unmarried mothers who were neither psychotic nor feeble minded and came from average American homes. Their relationship to the child, the child's father, and to the members of their families, showed various neurotic trends which the authors believe 'represent hysterical disassociation states in which the girls act out their incest fantasies as an expression of the Oedipus situation'. Attitudes toward their fathers, and the history of promiscuity or illegitimacy in the mother's family played an important part in their psychological structure. [It is likely that pathological character traits are higher in percentage among persons who do not adjust themselves to established social institutions, and that this very question of adjustment or maladjustment gives many an opportunity for neurotic 'acting out'. Rev.]