This paper is an attempt to investigate those factors which decisively influence the conscious and unconscious attitudes toward the mother tongue. The clinical material was based on an analysis which was begun in English and then, due to certain specific resistances, was carried on in German. This technical maneuver brought to light the way in which the new language became a method of defense for the patient against her past infantile life. Most important, however, was the discovery that the new language was a defense against the strong unconscious preoedipal fixation to the mother which was still accessible in the mother tongue.

On the basis of these observations and findings, a hypothesis is discussed which