Using three case illustrations Hilgard demonstrates that the mother, through her attitudes, continues old battles and relives the competitive struggles of her own childhood with her siblings in the struggles between her children. In social heredity a transmission of personality characteristics from one generation to another occurs, the vehicle of which is the psychogenic influence of parent on child. The presence of children who are potential rivals reactivates the mother's old pattern and she, in a complex identification of herself with her child, of another child with her rival, and of herself with one or both parents, sets the stage for the transmission of personality characteristics.