Attitudes toward illness were studied before and during the intravenous administration of amobarbital sodium. The drug 'appeared to provide a milieu of brain function in which not new motivations but new symbolic forms for their expression could be evolved and maintained. These are best interpreted not in terms of "release of repressed material" but as an adaptive, more effective defense in a situation of greater stress.' Normal subjects used more concrete symbols, selectively misinterpreted questions, and misnamed the examiners in paraphasic fashion. Much of the behavior may be ascribed to a peculiar subject-object relationship.