Parallels are drawn between various types of total self-surrender: religious experience; strong positive transference in psychoanalysis; some delusional psychoses; and 'confession under communist interrogation'. A parasitic superego becomes superimposed on a superego already conditioned by originally unfavorable relationships with an authoritarian parent, generally the mother. After prolonged efforts to maintain his identity in the struggle with such a mother (or her substitute, the enemy or interrogator), exhaustion leads to final surrender to the devouring breasts (or their surrogates). Otto Sperling's paper, The Interpretation of the Trauma as a Command,1 is directly relevant to this problem.