Meerloo states that shock, mental and surgical, is an 'unadjusted, primitive defense reaction in a traumatic condition, acting in a period of transition to new defensive automatisms'. Though the conclusion appears to have been drawn from a large experience in both physiology and psychoanalytic psychology, it is not convincing. Despite the increasing attempt on the part of analysts to say that the physiological and the psychological defenses of the organism are analogous, only analogies have been drawn and no physiological or psychological experimentation has been conceived which bridges the gap from conjectural analogy to demonstrable fact. Meerloo's paper does not bring sufficient proof for his statements. Nevertheless, his description and his point of view are worth serious consideration, demanding physiological proof beyond his deductions from psychoanalytic psychology.