Psychiatric studies of twenty male patients with peptic ulcer tend to confirm Alexander's hypothesis that an internal conflict over dependency desires, rather than total personality structure, is the essential psychogenic factor in this disorder. This work, which is based essentially on anamnestic material obtained in a few interviews with each case, adds little to our knowledge of the pathogenesis of the disorder and does not supply the control studies which alone can give meaning to the occurrence of such a common emotional conflict in relation to a specific disease entity.