Three cases are reported of remissions of acute schizophrenic psychoses shortly after maternal death. The psychodynamics are not elucidated because probing into the meaning to the patients of the deaths of their mothers was considered dangerous. While many schizophrenic patients do not improve after maternal death, it seems justified in these three cases to assume such an effect for the following reasons: all three patients were young and suffered from first attacks of relatively recent onset; all their mothers were actively involved in the delusional and hallucinatory systems; all of the patients were dominated by their mothers and suffered feelings of guilt concerning them. The illnesses of these patients seemed to represent flights from the temptations and frustrations imposed by the mothers, whose deaths allowed an adaptation to a less irritating and provocative reality.