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A woman, thirty-six years old, was referred to the psychoanalyst for relief from a variety of hysterical conversions, the most disturbing among them being severe dyspnea and prolonged spells of coughing; also spells of dizziness and of fainting. After six months of analysis, when her condition had improved considerably, she became interested in her food allergies of which she had spoken before only casually. In the long course of her illness she had undergone numerous examinations by various specialists. Her allergy to foods had preceded by many years the onset of the symptoms which had prompted her referral to psychoanalysis and for that reason she had been on a very limited diet for the past ten years. Her allergic reactions were gastrointestinal disturbances and an urticaria which at times assumed giant proportions. She was particularly sensitive to citrus fruit and had not been able to tolerate orange or grapefruit juice throughout these years. She had also been found to be allergic to fish, eggs, butter, nuts, chocolate, and a number of other foods.
During a phase of analysis she had frequent dreams about food. Typical is the following:
A man was offering me various foods I am forbidden to eat. I finally accepted orange juice from him.
She recalled from her childhood that her only brother, who was fifteen months younger than she, once nearly drank urine from a bottle containing a specimen for examination; he thought it